Poverty Alleviation in India

Employment and skill-building programmes

MGNREGA

• It is a statutory scheme to provide demand-driven employment security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment every year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• Provision for Unemployment Allowance if an applicant is not provided employment within 15 days of receipt of his application.
• Wage rates for workers are notified and revised annually based on CPI-Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). CPI-AL is published by Labour Bureau, Shimla.
• Compensation for delay in payments of more than 15 days from the date of closure of the Muster Roll, in payments of wages is paid to the workers.

Transparency:

(i) Statutory requirement of Social Audit.

(ii) Presence of the Ombudsman in 80% of districts will be insisted on as a pre-condition for approval of the Annual Action Plan and Labour Budget for FY 2022-23.

Funding: Central Govt pays for the entire cost incurred for wage payments of MGNREGA workers and 75% of the cost of the equipment and machinery involved.

Priority to women:

MGNREGA Act specifies that 1/3^rd of the beneficiaries should be women who have registered and requested work. Efforts should be made to increase the participation of single women. Other women’s positive measures:

(1) Wage parity between women and men

(2) Separate schedule of rates of wages for women

(3) Facilities for creche

(4) Work-side sheds for children and childcare services

(5) In convergence with, DAY-NRLM, women mates have been introduced to facilitate women’s participation

(6) Work is provided close to the residence.

Participation rate: Women’s participation rate has been more than 50% in the last 5 years.

Individual Assets under MGNREGA: According to para 5 of Schedule 1 of the MGNREGA Act, works creating individual assets shall be prioritised on land or homestead owned by households belonging to

(a) Scheduled Castes (Highest)

(b) Scheduled Tribes

(c) Nomadic Tribes

(d) Denotified Tribes

(e) Other families below the poverty line

(f) Women-headed households

(g) Physically handicapped headed households

(h) Beneficiaries of land reforms

(i) Beneficiaries of PMAY-Grameen

(j) Beneficiaries of Forest Rights Act

(k) After exhausting eligible beneficiaries under the above categories, on lands of small and marginal farmers as defined by Agriculture Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008 subject to the condition that such households shall have a job card with at least one member willing to work on the project undertaken on their land/ homestead. (Lowest).

Monitoring and Grievance Redressal

• State Government must identify or establish independent Social Audit Units to facilitate Gram Sabha in conducting social audits of works taken up.

Reforms in MGNREGA

• 100% of Geo-Tagging of Assets (Geo MGNREGA)
• Aadhar linking of bank accounts
• GIS-based planning of works

Mission Water Conservation

• Mission Water Conservation (Convergence framework for scientific planning and execution of water management works with the use of the latest technology). It has been made in consultation with the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare.
• Watershed Management, Command Area Development, Construction of Wells.
• Guidelines to focus on dark and grey blocks where groundwater level was falling rapidly. Farm ponds, Vermi/ NADEP composting, (re-excavation/ renovation of farm ponds cannot be undertaken on private lands is not a permissible activity), Construction of Anganwadi Centres, Construction of Individual Household Latrines, Construction of School toilets and Anganwadi toilets, Construction of Houses under PM Awas Yojana (Grameen), PM Adarsh Gram Yojana.

Skill Development under MGNREGA

Barefoot Technicians (BFT)

• Program for training and skill development of MGNREGA workers. He is an educated person identified from the local MGNREGA worker households or from mates/supervisors and specially trained in civil engineering concepts training module such that he acquires required skills for identification and estimation of works, giving marks out for works in the field and record measurement of the work done.
• Eligibility: Shall be from an active household, minimum 10^th standard education. Preference shall be given to BFTs from the local area. Adequate representation shall be given to SC/ST and Women candidates.

PROJECT LIFE (Livelihoods in Full Employment)

• The project aims at promoting self-reliance and improving the skill base of the MGNREGA workers, thereby improving the livelihoods of MGNREGA workers so that they can move from their current partial employment to full employment status and thereby reduce their dependence on MGNREGA. It focuses on skill development and the formation of production groups with target households.
• 60:40 expenditure between wage and material at the district level. Initially, it was at the Gram Panchayat level.
• Electronic Fund Management System (e-FMS) is used to make 100% of expenditures under the scheme.
• Central Employment Guarantee Council: It is a statutory body created under the NREG Act, 2005Ajeevika – National Rural Livelihood Mission (2011): It evolves out the need to diversify the needs of the rural poor and provide them jobs with regular income on a monthly basis. Self Help Groups are formed at the village level to help the needy.
• National Urban Livelihood Mission: Focuses on organizing urban poor in Self Help Groups, creating opportunities for skill development leading to market-based employment and helping them to set up self-employment ventures by ensuring easy access to credit.
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: It will focus on the fresh entrant to the labour market, especially the labour market and class X and XII dropouts.

Mission Antyodaya

• Aims to bring 50000 Gram Panchayats in 5000 clusters and make them poverty free by 2022.
• GPs have been selected by respective State Governments and UTs.

 Envisaged Outcomes

• The strong infrastructural base for selected GPs/clusters through the prioritised implementation of schemes in line with Gram Panchayat Development Plan/Cluster Development Plans.
• Effective social capital promoting participatory planning and implementation of schemes engaging a wide range of stakeholders at GP/Cluster
• Enhanced economic opportunities through diversified livelihoods, including the non-farm sector, skilling of rural youth and women, development of value chains and promotion of enterprise
• Strengthened democratic processes through capacity building of PRIs, public disclosures, and GP-level formal and social accounts such as social audits.
• An accountability and convergence framework for transforming lives and livelihoods on measurable outcomes.
• Evidence-based identification and ensuring eligibility and accountability
• Measuring the performance of GPs and the well-being of households

Key processes under Mission Antyodaya

• Conduct baseline survey of households and monitor the progress periodically
• Ensure convergence of programs/schemes targeted towards the development of rural areas.
• Institutionalise partnerships at GPs/Clusters between PRIs, community organisations, NGOs, SHGs, institutions and field-level functionaries (e.g., ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers, ANMs etc)
• Promote enterprise through partnerships with institutions and professionals
• Funding: Does not have a separate budget head. Funding for the program will come from the pooling of funds from various schemes for rural development.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana: National Rural Livelihoods Mission

Aim:

• Organise rural poor women into Self-Help Groups, and continuously nurture and support them till come out of poverty.
• Seeks to reach out to 8-9 crore rural people households and organise one woman member from each household into affinity-based women SHGs and federations at village level and at higher levels.

Financial support:

(a) The scheme has provision for a Revolving Fund and Community Investment Fund provided to SHGs and their Federations to facilitate their livelihood activities.

(b) Provision for Interest Subvention to women SHGs to avail loans up to Rs 3 lakh from banks at an interest rate of 7% per annum.

(c) Additional interest subvention is provided in 250 backward districts (Reduced interest rate of 4% if the loan is repaid on time).

(d) Overdraft Facility of Rs 5,000 is available to verified members of SHGs under DAY-NRLM in rural areas to meet their immediate/emergency requirements.

• Banking Correspondent Sakhis: To provide last-mile delivery of financial services, more than 50,000 thousand SHG members have been deployed as BC Sakhi. They are trained by RSETIs established by lead banks in the district. According to RBI guidelines, all Banking Correspondents must pass an online examination conducted by the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF). NRLM plans for one GP and one BC Sakhi Mission.
• SAKSHAM Centres: Also known as Centre for Financial Literacy & Service Delivery (CFL&SD). They will provide financial literacy & facilitate the delivery of financial services (savings, credit, insurance, pensions etc) to SHG members and the rural poor. These centres will be managed by the SHG network, largely at the level of Cluster Level Federations (CLFs), with the help of trained Community Resources Persons, who will be trained provided 6 days of residential training at Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) established by the Lead Bank of the district.

Farm livelihood

Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP):

• MKSP intervention strategy involves building a structure on a foundation of sustainability.
• This involves incorporating climate change resilient and ecologically sound practices.
• Community Resource Persons (CRPs) play a proactive role in scaling up these initiatives.

Major interventions promoted under DAY-NRLM which contribute to climate change resilience & risk mitigation among the poor are:

• Community-managed sustainable agriculture (agroecology approaches)
• Usage of locally available natural inputs – for pest management and soil fertility management
• System of root intensification – SRI, SCI
• Promotion of millet and cereal crops
• Promotion of multiple crops
• Tree-based farming practices
• Regeneration of forest species
• Usage of locally available natural inputs
• Integrated farming practice with small ruminants
• Convergence with MGNREGA to create agriculture assets for the community
• Non-Pesticide Management
• Natural soil fertility Management
• Integrating livestock with agriculture
• Integration of livestock; Promotion of the Pashu Sakhi model
• Ensuring scalability of climate change resilient agriculture practices through Community Best Practitioners (CBPs)
• In-situ rainwater harvesting
• Promotion of Organic farming village clusters with women SHG members: 1646 organic village clusters have been identified by 28 states/UTs.
• Farm Livelihoods MIS

Non-Farm Livelihoods

Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Program (SVEP):

• Scheme for supporting rural entrepreneurs by establishing the eco-system for enterprise development in rural areas.

• The eco-system has components for providing business support services, mentorship, seed capital, training & capacity building on business and technical aspects and marketing support.
• SVEP saturates a block with these services to support small businesses.
• The program is being implemented in 131 blocks across the country.

Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY):

• Provides safe, affordable and community-monitored rural transport services to remote villages.
• The vehicles are owned and operated by members of SHG networks and operate in regions that are not served by regular transport services.
• 624 routes are currently served by AGEY across the country.

Agri-Nutri Garden:

DAY-NRLM aims to support every rural poor household to have Agri-Nutri Garden to fulfil the family’s nutrition needs and sell excess production for income generation.

National Rural Economic Transformation Project

• Promote women-owned, women-led farm and non-farm enterprises across value chains, enable them to build businesses that help them access finance, markets and networks, and generate employment.
• Create a platform to access finance including start-up financing options to build individual or collectively owned and managed enterprises.
• Developing financial products using digital financial services to help small producer collectives scale up and engage with the market.
• Support youth skill development, in coordination with DDU Grameen Kaushalya Yojana.
• Peer-to-peer learning across States & Communities
• Technical assistance

ROSHNI Centre

• DAY-NRLM and Lady Irwin College have signed an MoU to establish ROSHNI (Centre of Women Collectives-led Social Action)
• Technically and financially supported by UNICEF India.
• Serve as a technical support unit at the national level for DAY-NRLM.

Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

• Aims at building placement-linked skills of rural youth and placing them in relatively higher-wage employment sectors of the economy.
• The skilling courses are undertaken by the Project Implementing agency in a PPP Mode.
• Every PIA needs to assure placements to 70% of the trained candidates.
• Market-led; a placement-linked training program for rural youth undertaken in PPP mode.
• Mandatory assured placement to 70% of the trained candidates.
• Focus on rural youth from poor families in the age group of 15 to 35 years belonging to:
  • MGNREGA worker household if any person from the household has completed 15 days of work
  • RSBY household
  • Antyodaya Anna Yojana card household
  • BPL PDS card households
  • NRLM-SHG household
  • Households covered under inclusion parameters of SECC 2011.
• Social inclusion of candidates through mandatory coverage of socially disadvantaged groups i.e., for SC/ST – 50%, Minorities – 15% and Women 33%.
• Regional inclusion of candidates is enabled through:
  • A sub-scheme for the youth of J&K is called Himayat.
  • An initiative for rural youth of poor families in the 27 most affected LWE districts across 9 states called ROSHNI.
• Minimum salary of Rs 6000 per month or minimum wages of the State, whichever is higher (after a three-month training course)
• Post-placement support to candidates.
• Incentives to training partners and candidates for achievement of outcomes in job retention (12 months), and career progression (salary of Rs 15000 in the first year).
• The primacy is given to Training Partners who can train and support overseas placement and captive placements.
• Promotes Industry Internships supported through joint partnerships between industry and DDU-GKY.

Criteria for Project Implementation Agencies:

• Overseas Placement of Poor Rural Youth
• Projects for Captive Employment
• Projects by ‘Champion Employers’
• Educational Institutions of High Repute

Funding

• 60:40 between Centre and States in all states, except in North-East states, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where it is 90:10. In J&K, it is 100% funded.
• Free-of-cost placement linked skill training scheme for rural poor youth.
• CIPET and Indo-German Tool rooms
• Kaushal Panjee Portal and mobile app for registration of prospective training candidates were also launched.

Kaushal Panjee

• It is a mobile app for the registration of prospective training candidates for skill development.
• It aims to be the citizen-centric end-to-end solution to aid the mobilization of candidates for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and Rural Self Employment Training. Institutes (RSETI).
• Kaushal Panjee is connected to the Social Economic Caste Census 2011 which will help the States plan and target their mobilizations based on the socio-economic profile of households in their State.

PM Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0

• The basic premise for the scheme is to create a skilled and certified workforce, who not only contribute towards the growth of India but also drive the country into becoming the global skills capital.
• It is a scheme under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Objectives

1. Create an ecosystem for youth to make informed choices on available skilling avenues
2. Provide support to youth for skill training and certification
3. Promote sustainable skill centres for greater participation of the private sector
4. Benefit 8 lakh youth over the scheme period

Components

• The scheme will have two components:
• Centrally Sponsored Centrally Managed known as the Central Component to be implemented by National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
• Centrally Sponsored State Managed known as the State Component to be implemented by State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs)
• The total target of the scheme will be divided in the ratio of 75:25 between Central and State Components respectively.

Modes of Skill Development under the Scheme

Short Term Training

• Shall be implemented under both Central and State components.
• Provision for both fresh skilling for trainees (first-time learners) and re-skilling for the trainees/existing workforce.
• The training under STT courses ranges between 200-600 hours (2 to 6 months). School/college dropouts or unemployed youth of Indian nationality shall benefit from the scheme.
• Training is to be provided in accordance with National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). Also training to be imparted in English, Employability and Entrepreneurship (EEE) i.e., soft skills.

Training will be provided in two modes:

• 100% classroom-based approach: Both training and practical conducted physically as training institutes
• Payment to Training Providers will be broken into tranches namely 30% on commencement of training batches, 40% on successful certification and 30% on placement verification subject to revisions by the Common Cost Norms committee.
• Other incentives like boarding & lodging, post-placement support, conveyance and other support will be as per Common Cost Norms.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

1. It is a skill certification component that enables youth to take on industry-relevant skill certification, which will help them secure a better livelihood. Individuals with prior learning experience or skills can register themselves and get assessed and certified under the RPL component. It focuses on individuals engaged in unregulated sectors. 

Special Projects Under this component

• Project-based skilling interventions shall be undertaken to meet the skilling needs of marginalised or vulnerable groups (SC, ST, Transgenders, Disabled, Women, EWS or any other category which is recognised as vulnerable by the State or Central Government) and those in difficult areas such as Left Wing Extremism Areas, Aspirational Districts, J&K, Ladakh, North Eastern States and Island Territories).
• Short-term skilling initiatives are undertaken by reputed industry bodies offering captive placement opportunities.
• Project with innovative strategies
• Projects offering local livelihood through creative market-linked entrepreneurship
• Projects assuring international placements

Schemes for Food and Shelter

Food for Work Programme: It aims at enhancing food security through wage employment. Food grains are supplied to states free of cost, however, the supply of food grains from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns has been slow.

Annapurna: This scheme was started by the government in 1999–2000 to provide food to senior citizens who cannot take care of themselves and are not under the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS). This scheme would provide 10 kg of free food grains a month for eligible senior citizens. They mostly target groups of ‘poorest of the poor’ and ‘indigent senior citizens’.

Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana:

• It has two components: Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Grameen) and Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Urban). It was launched in 2015.
• It unites schemes like Ujjwala Yojana (provides LPG to BPL), access to toilets, water, and drinking water facilities and Saubhagya Yojana (electricity).

• Other schemes like Integrated Child Development Program, Midday Meal scheme etc. are also providing food to the needy sections like children and women.

Access to credit

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi: This scheme aims to provide financial assistance to provide working capital support to all the landholding farmers. This brings in the idea of universal basic income for the farmers in India.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: It aimed at direct benefit transfer of subsidy, pension, insurance etc. and attained the target of opening 1.5 crore bank accounts. The scheme particularly targets the unbanked poor.
• Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP): It was introduced in 1978-79 and aimed at aiding the rural poor in the form of subsidies and bank credit for productive employment opportunities through successive plan periods.

Income support for poor

National Social Assistance Program

A social security and welfare program to provide support to aged, widows, disabled persons & bereaved families on the death of a primary breadwinner, belonging to below poverty line households.

Schemes under NSAP

Presently NSAP comprises 5 schemes

Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS): Eligible age for IGNOAPS is 60 years. The pension is Rs.200 p.m. for persons between 60 years and 79 years. For persons who are 80 years and above the pension is Rs.500/ – per month.

Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGNWPS): Eligible age is 40 years and pension is Rs.300 per month. After attaining the age of 80 years, the beneficiary will get Rs.500/ – per month.

Indira Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS): Eligible age for pensioners is 18 years and above and the disability level has to be 80%. The amount is Rs.300 per month and after attaining the age of 80 years, the beneficiary will get Rs 500 per month. Dwarfs are also eligible for this pension.

National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS): Rs. 20000/ will be given as lump-sum assistance to the bereaved household in the event of the death of the breadwinner.

Overall Regional Development

 PM Gram Sadak Yojana

PMGSY is a one-time special intervention to provide single all-weather road connectivity to eligible unconnected habitations in rural areas.

Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

• Aim: Develop such rural areas by provisioning economic, social and physical infrastructure facilities.

 Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana

• A village development where each MP will take the responsibility to develop 3 Adarsh Grams by developing physical and institutional infrastructure.
• Thereafter, 5 such Adarsh Grams (one per year) will be selected and developed by 2024.

Challenges in Eradicating Poverty in India

Many programmes and schemes have been implemented to directly attack poverty by generating work and providing healthcare, education, nutrition and support to backward areas and vulnerable groups. Although the poverty rate has declined, a large proportion of our population still lives in poverty.

1. While many poverty alleviation programmes have been initiated, they function in silos. 
2. No systematic attempt to identify people who are in poverty, determine their needs, address them and enable them to move above the poverty line.
3. No commitment by the government to support an individual or a household in getting the minimum level of subsistence through any programme or group of programmes. 
4. Resources allocated to anti-poverty programmes are inadequate and there is a tacit understanding that targets will be curtailed according to fund availability. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Mgnrega) does not provide the guaranteed 100 days of work in many states.
5. No method to ensure that programmes reach everybody they are meant for. While our plans have taken cognisance of the literature on chronic poverty and the dynamics of poverty, alleviation programmes and schemes have not used this understanding to address this issue.

Impact of COVID on Poverty in India

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year led to mass havoc, fueling a global health and economic crisis, the death of millions, lockdown of industries, large-scale job cuts, and catastrophic income shocks. It pushed the world into a deep recession, which for the first time after the Great Depression, is creating economic downturns in terms of job, income and consumption loss. Across the globe, around 3.9 million people have died, and millions have been pushed into poverty. India is no exception to this.

Initially, the only means available to deal with this situation was a state of isolation or instituting restricted access called lockdown as an absolute security measure, whose long shadows imply that:

1. Over 400 million people risk sliding into poverty, as they are forced to depend on informal work. (ILO)
2. The Indian economy contracted by 7.3% in 2020, the greatest contraction since independence.
3. This pandemic will push an additional 88 million to 115 million people into extreme poverty with the total rising to about 150 million by 2021 when the new poor would be in countries already having high poverty rates. (World Bank)
4. 218 million additional people (168 million in rural and 50 million in urban areas) would have been pushed into poverty at a 12 % contraction in their monthly per capita consumption in the year 2020-21.
5. Even not a third of the total school girls could access online education. Class inequality reveals the deep digital divide.
6. As well as a public health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on poverty levels and inequality.
7. Women, alongside the poor, elderly, disabled and migrant populations, have borne the brunt of the fallout from the pandemic.
8. Women negatively influenced by class are facing increasing violence and struggling against inequalities.
9. Across social categories, a higher percentage of people from marginalised groups are expected to fall into poverty than the other groups. For instance, at an all-India level, around 13-20 per cent of additional SC/ST people are expected to fall into poverty as compared to 12-16 per cent of upper-caste people. The Covid-19 induced poverty, therefore, leads to widening disparity between SC/ST and non-SC/ST groups.
10. The loss of life and reduced capabilities among working-age adults can have strong spill-over effects within households, who may be forced to pull children out of school and reduce their investments in other health inputs. The result is a poverty trap where low human capital investment perpetuates diminished capabilities for the next generation.
11. The pandemic has induced even greater levels of automation, a change in demand for skills, and limited the growth of low-wage occupations. For those who are economically vulnerable, to begin with, the opportunities to rebuild are complicated. These pressures are particularly salient in the informal sector that currently employs more than 90 per cent of India’s female workers and 86 per cent of male workers.
12. Across major occupations, self-employed agriculture, non-agriculture, and casual labourers bear the highest impact in rural areas. In urban areas, casual labourers disproportionately bear the brunt of the crises.
13. As class inequalities widen, the differential classes with the lowest access to financial strengthening inputs get added to extreme poverty.

Way Forward

1. To address poverty effectively, people who formulate alleviation programmes need to understand and address chronic poverty and the dynamics of poverty. We know, for instance, that poverty is especially prevalent among certain occupational groups. Casual agricultural labour is the largest group that is stuck in poverty, as per data from the socioeconomic caste census. These are the “working poor”, for whom the State has not been able to secure the right to an adequate means of livelihood. This must be addressed.
2. Geographical dimension to poverty: Concentration of poverty in certain parts of the country. So, there should be a renewed focus on the poorest districts: to universalise access in these areas and applying indicators that assess performance-based improvement of the most vulnerable.
3. Poverty has persisted among certain marginalised groups, especially among the Scheduled Tribes. Hence, the inclusion of tribal girls or women in programmes in the poorest blocks and villages should be used as an indicator of performance.
4. Employment-intensive Sustained Rapid Growth: First, by creating jobs that pay steadily rising real wages, it directly dents poverty and, second, it leads to growth in government revenues which in turn allow the expansion of social expenditures at a faster pace.
5. The poor predominantly reside in rural areas where incomes critically depend on agricultural growth. Agricultural Development by raising productivity in agriculture, helping small & marginal farmers by reforming tenancy laws etc. must be taken care of.
6. Making anti-poverty programs such as the Public Distribution System (PDS), Midday Meal Scheme, MGNREGA and Housing for All more effective.
7. Healthcare costs are huge, particularly for the poor or those who are on the margins. It is important by way of policy to make sure that people taken out of poverty do not slip back into poverty. There should be enough state capacity to provide health care, especially at the rural level.
8. As land is the major means of production in rural areas, a suggested remedy to the problem of poverty is to provide land rights to all those who depend upon it.
9. Skill development