Poverty Eradication in India is a central focus of government policy, and numerous schemes have been launched over the years to address the complex, multi-dimensional nature of poverty. These schemes aim to provide direct economic support, improve access to education and healthcare, generate employment, and ensure basic amenities like housing and sanitation.
Key Poverty Eradication Schemes in India
- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
- Objective: MGNREGA aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
- Focus: Employment generation, rural development.
- Impact: MGNREGA provides employment to millions of rural households, helping them earn a minimum income and preventing extreme poverty during lean agricultural seasons. It also contributes to the creation of rural infrastructure like roads, ponds, and canals.
- Example: In states like Rajasthan and Bihar, where agriculture is seasonal, MGNREGA has been instrumental in providing alternative employment, particularly for landless laborers. For instance, a family in a village in Rajasthan may use MGNREGA wages to support their basic needs during off-seasons when farming is not feasible due to lack of irrigation.
- Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)
- Objective: PMAY aims to provide affordable housing to the urban and rural poor by 2022. Under this scheme, beneficiaries receive subsidies or financial assistance to construct or renovate houses.
- Focus: Housing, urban and rural development.
- Impact: PMAY helps improve living conditions by ensuring access to pucca (permanent) housing, which is essential for the overall well-being of poor households.
- Example: In rural Maharashtra, under PMAY-Gramin, a landless laborer family received financial assistance to build a brick house with a toilet and electricity, significantly improving their living standards compared to their earlier kutcha (temporary) dwelling.
- Public Distribution System (PDS)
- Objective: The PDS provides subsidized food grains (such as rice, wheat, and sugar) and other essentials to low-income families through a network of fair price shops across the country.
- Focus: Food security, malnutrition reduction.
- Impact: The PDS ensures that poor families have access to essential food items at affordable prices, reducing hunger and malnutrition.
- Example: In states like Tamil Nadu, a poor family that earns a meager daily wage relies on PDS to purchase rice, sugar, and oil at subsidized rates, ensuring they can feed their children even during times of economic hardship.
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY)
- Objective: PMJDY focuses on financial inclusion by providing access to bank accounts, credit, insurance, and pension services to unbanked populations, especially the poor.
- Focus: Financial inclusion, banking access.
- Impact: By linking the poor to formal banking services, the scheme helps them save, receive direct benefit transfers (DBTs), and access credit. It also protects them from the exploitation of informal moneylenders.
- Example: A daily wage worker in Uttar Pradesh, who previously had no bank account, opened an account under PMJDY. Now, she receives DBT payments from government schemes like LPG subsidies directly into her account, ensuring timely and secure transfers.
- Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY)
- Objective: PM-JAY provides health coverage to economically disadvantaged families for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization up to ₹5 lakh per family per year.
- Focus: Universal healthcare, financial protection from health-related impoverishment.
- Impact: PM-JAY reduces the financial burden of health expenses on poor families and improves access to quality healthcare services.
- Example: In rural Jharkhand, a poor farmer who suffered from a serious heart condition could afford surgery thanks to the coverage provided under Ayushman Bharat. Without this scheme, the family would have been forced into debt to pay for medical treatment.
- National Social Assistance Program (NSAP)
- Objective: NSAP provides financial assistance to elderly, widows, and persons with disabilities who are living below the poverty line (BPL).
- Focus: Social security for the elderly, disabled, and vulnerable groups.
- Impact: NSAP ensures a basic level of income for the elderly and disabled, helping them meet their basic needs and reducing their vulnerability to poverty.
- Example: A widow in a village in Madhya Pradesh receives a small pension under NSAP, which helps her buy food and medicines. This minimal income provides a safety net for her in the absence of any other source of income.
- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
- Objective: PMKVY aims to provide skill training to youth in various sectors, ensuring employability and reducing poverty through enhanced job opportunities.
- Focus: Skill development, employment generation.
- Impact: By equipping young people with skills, PMKVY improves their chances of securing formal employment and escaping the cycle of poverty.
- Example: A young man from a poor family in Karnataka enrolled in a PMKVY program to learn skills in automotive repair. After completing the training, he secured a job at an automobile service center, helping him support his family and improve their living conditions.
- Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)
- Objective: DAY-NULM aims to reduce poverty among the urban poor by providing skill development, credit for self-employment, and opportunities for women’s empowerment through Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
- Focus: Urban poverty, women’s empowerment, self-employment.
- Impact: DAY-NULM enables the urban poor, especially women, to create their own sources of income and improves their access to basic amenities like shelter, clean water, and sanitation.
- Example: A women’s SHG in a slum area of Hyderabad received training and a small loan under DAY-NULM to start a tailoring business. This initiative helped the women earn an independent income and support their families, reducing their reliance on informal and low-paying jobs.
Targeting and Inclusivity in Poverty Eradication Schemes
Most of the poverty eradication schemes in India have built-in mechanisms for targeting the poorest sections of society:
- SECC (Socio-Economic and Caste Census): Schemes like MGNREGA and PMAY use SECC data to identify and prioritize the most deprived households.
- Identification of BPL (Below Poverty Line) Families: Many schemes are targeted at families identified as BPL through surveys, ensuring that only the most economically disadvantaged benefit from government assistance.
- Use of Aadhaar for DBT: Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) linked to Aadhaar ensure that subsidies and welfare payments reach the intended beneficiaries, reducing leakages and corruption.
Challenges in Poverty Eradication Schemes
Despite the extensive network of poverty eradication schemes, several challenges persist:
- Leakages and Corruption: Many schemes, especially those involving subsidies like PDS, have been marred by corruption, leading to leakages and the benefits not reaching the intended recipients.
- Awareness and Access: Many poor households are unaware of the benefits they are entitled to, or they face difficulties in accessing government services due to bureaucratic hurdles and lack of infrastructure.
- Targeting Errors: Inaccurate data or bureaucratic inefficiencies can lead to targeting errors, where non-poor households benefit from schemes meant for the poor, while genuinely poor households are left out.
Conclusion
Poverty eradication in India requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses economic, social, and infrastructural aspects of deprivation. Schemes like MGNREGA, PMAY, PDS, PMJDY, and Ayushman Bharat have played a significant role in lifting millions out of poverty by providing employment, housing, food security, financial inclusion, and healthcare access. However, continued efforts to improve the targeting, implementation, and outreach of these schemes are essential to achieve the goal of eradicating poverty across the country.
