Question

What are the reasons for limited success of the poverty alleviation programme in India?

Answer 1

Lack of political will: poverty has been a hindrance in the development of India as a whole since Independence. There have been a lot of schems aimed at poverty alleviation like provision of ration cards, food for work, MGNREGA, etc yet all of them have failed to get implemeted due to lack of penetration of democracy at local levels, lack of political participation, lack of education,etc.

Lack in holistic approach: schemes that have been implemented in India to alleviate poverry have been primarily aimed at just covering the monetary part. E.g. in case of Food for work, only the food portion was being covered. In MGNREGA, the beneficiary was entitled only for the monetary benefit. As per the UN report, poverty is just not about money, and yet the governmental schemes had failed to realize this.

A up to bottom approach: Most of the poverty alleviation schemes, like MGNREGA, have been either inspired or planned at a centralized level and implemented without or little modifications at district levels.e.g. in Kerala, where the literacy levels are high, the MGNREGA beneficiaries are getting paid the same amount as the beneficiaries in uttar Pradesh where not only the literacy levels are comparitively low but also the developmental aspects are lower than Kerala.

Lack of periodical review and a consistent approach: at the time of Independence, nehru approached poverty alleviation through education and technology , while Indira Gandhi during the 1970s fought poverty through direct benefits. This was completely changed at the time of Rajeev Gandhi when poverty alleviation was directly linked to IT revolution. A change of perception is currently seen when the current government is focussing on alleviation through inclusion. Although every government aims for good, yet the positive outcomes have seldom been considered in successive government's agenda , more so when the political party affiliation is different.

I wrote this, as an aspirant. Hope you find it good. All criticisms are welcome. Thanks .:-) and good luck for ur future.

Edit 1.) Kindly ignore the basic grammatical mistakes and my less substantiating. The answer was written in a drunk state so kindly criticize with a human heart:-)