Major areas of concern which prevent successful implementation of these programs are-

♤ Unequal distribution of land and other assets, due to which the benefits from direct poverty alleviation programmes are appropriated by the non-poor.

♤ Compared to the magnitude of poverty, the amount of resources allocated for these programmes is not sufficient.

♤ These programmes depend mainly on government and bank officials for their implementation. Since such officials are ill motivated, inadequately trained, corruption prone and vulnerable to pressure from a variety of local elites, the resources are inefficiently used and wasted.

♤ There is also non-participation of local level institutions in programme implementation.

♤ High growth alone is not sufficient to reduce poverty. Without the active participation of the poor, successful implementation of any programme is not possible.

♤ Government policies also have proved inadequate to address the vast majority of vulnerable people who are living on or just above the poverty line.

1.8. Way Forward

The government should work towards effective implementation of various ongoing programs by-

♤ Sufficient allocation of resources

♤ Providing adequate training and incentives to government and bank officials implementing these programs

♤ Ensuring participation of local government and institutions

♤ Ensuring active participation of poor in these programs

♤ Effective distribution of wealth and benefits of economic growth

It has also been realized that poverty can effectively be eradicated only when the poor start contributing to growth by their active involvement in the growth process. This is possible through a process of social mobilisation, encouraging poor people to participate and get them empowered. This will also help create employment opportunities which may lead to increase in levels of income, skill development, health and literacy. Moreover, it is necessary to identify poverty stricken areas and provide infrastructure such as schools, roads, power, telecom, IT services, training institutions etc.

1.9. Poverty: Last One Decade

One of the great achievements in recent decades has been the huge reduction in the numbers of people living in extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as $1.90 per person per day. India has been able to lift 270 million people out of poverty facing multidimensional poverty, thus reducing its poor population by nearly half. Yet new evidence from the World Bank shows that the rate of poverty reduction has halved since 2013. Extreme poverty is actually increasing in sub-Saharan Africa. This new evidence also shows that much of humanity has barely escaped poverty, with just under half the world’s population – 3.4 billion people – subsisting on less than

$5.50 a day, which is the World Bank’s new poverty line for extreme poverty in upper-middle-

income countries. The Bank finds that women are more often among the poorest people, particularly during their reproductive years, because of the level of unpaid care work they are expected to do. This is a direct result of inequality, and of prosperity accruing disproportionately to those at the top for decades.