Unfinished battle

In the previous article, we discussed the various measurements of poverty and its extent over the years. We will continue the discussion and, in this article, we will talk about various measures of addressing the poverty challenge in the five-year plans.

Policies and measures

The first three plans had major objectives, but poverty eradication was not one of them. While it did figure as an important objective, it was not the focus. The first plan stated in the first chapter that elimination of poverty would come about by raising rates of growth and distribution of income and wealth: both would have to go hand in hand. While the objective of poverty elimination was implicit in discussions on various sectors and on employment, it was not referred to explicitly. In the second plan, the focus was more on creating heavy industries and capital goods. The third plan also wrote of the need for ‘extermination of poverty’ in the first chapter, and this issue was mentioned only in general terms.

It was during the fourth plan (1969-74) that the issue of poverty got centre stage. With the slogan of ‘Garibi Hatao’ in 1971, Indira Gandhi easily won the elections. However, the fourth plan itself had no separate strategy on poverty. It spoke of improving living conditions of the common man through ‘education and employment’. It also spoke of attaining a ‘national minimum’ to improve the living conditions of the weakest groups, and referred to the need to look out for the small farmers and landless labourers.

It was only in the fifth plan (1974-79) that a clear statement on poverty was made and possible solutions were suggested. It may be recalled from the previous article that around 50 per cent of the people were below the poverty line at this time. Chapter 2 of the plan document stated removal of poverty and attainment of self-reliance as objectives. The strategy to attain these objectives was to enhance growth in agriculture, energy and critical intermediates as well as to create additional employment opportunities. Additional investment and raising resources from the ‘more affluent sections of society’ were also stated as strategies to eliminate poverty. Furthermore, the first entry on the ‘Twenty Point Programme’, launched in 1975, was to address the issue of rural poverty. Accordingly, agriculture and irrigation, energy, and fuel and fertilisers had large outlays in the fifth plan, with the ultimate aim to generate enough jobs and remove poverty.

The sixth plan (1980-85) document noted that growth, by itself, was not enough to remove poverty, and other concomitant steps such as ‘employment generation, diversification of occupations, land reforms, reorientation of the credit systems and massive public investment in rural infrastructure’ were also needed. Specific programmes to redistribute income and wealth were also needed. In short, poverty eradication was stated to be one of the foremost objectives of the plan. At the start of the sixth plan (1980-85), according to the 32nd round of NSS, 50.7 per cent people in rural areas and 40 per cent people in urban areas were below the poverty line, which translated to 317 million people (260 million in rural areas and 57 million in urban areas). For the country as a whole, 48.4 per cent were below the poverty line. The target was to bring down the poverty to 30 per cent in both rural and urban areas, through various development programmes.

In the seventh plan (1985-90), the strategy for removal of poverty and unemployment, as important for growth with equity, was reiterated. Noting the success of the sixth plan, it also pointed out that the experience had enhanced the government’s ability to address the issue of poverty removal and pledged to expand anti-poverty programmes. The plan also set a goal of 5 per cent below the poverty line by 2000 in its 15-year perspective plan (which turned out to be an over-ambitious goal). In the seventh plan, it was expected that the population below the poverty line would fall from 36.9 per cent in 1984-85 to 25.8 per cent in 1989-90. In absolute numbers, this would mean that the number of poor would fall from 273 million to 211 million. In these efforts, the continued importance of programmes such as National Rural Employment Programme (NREP), Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme, and Integrated Rural Development Programme was underlined.

The eighth plan (1992-97) was implemented even as the economic liberalisation policies were being implemented. The plan document again listed elimination of poverty as one of the most important goals along with improvement in levels of living, health, education and attaining full employment. However, the main thrust was to be on growth, infrastructure and entrepreneurship, which in turn would generate enough resources to take up specific programmes for removing unemployment and poverty. The plan document noted that poverty levels had declined but there were still unacceptable levels of hunger and unemployment. This was also the period when the Lakdawala Expert Group, set up by the Planning Commission, submitted its report and suggested state-specific price indices to calculate the poverty line.

The ninth plan (1997-2002) introduced the concept of ‘poverty gap’ to measure the severity of poverty. This was in addition to the conventional poverty line and the ‘head count’ ratio, which only measured the incidence of poverty. The ninth plan found that the severity of poverty has fallen faster than the incidence of poverty over the years.

The ninth plan used the 50th round of NSS data to look at the poverty levels over the years. The table, reproduced from the ninth plan document, shows that rural poverty declined from 56.4 per cent in 1973-74 to 32.4 per cent in 1993-94. The decline in urban poverty was from 49 per cent to 32.4 per cent and

overall decline was from 54.9 per cent to 36 per cent. It is, however, interesting to note that the absolute number of the poor stayed the same because of population growth.

The tenth plan (2002-07) explicitly stated poverty reduction as one of its goals. The target was to reduce poverty by 5 per cent by 2007, and by 10 per cent by 2012. This was closely related to the target of generating 50 million jobs in the tenth plan and another 50 million in the eleventh plan. This would still leave 11 per cent below the poverty line by 2012. Some tenth plan strategies of poverty alleviation were agricultural growth, focusing on employment generating sectors, the creation of rural infrastructure such as rural roads, raising growth rate to 8 per cent per annum, specific

poverty alleviation plans and balanced regional development with state-specific plans for poverty reduction etc. The targets set in the tenth plan were, however, ambitious, and 28 per cent of the population was still below the poverty line in 2003-04. In absolute numbers, the poor had declined from 320 million in 1993-94 to 302 million in 2003-04.

The eleventh plan (2007-12) admitted that poverty levels continued to be high, and that continued efforts were needed to be made on this count. The efforts should include the standard strategies such as high growth, agricultural growth, increasing employment opportunities. However, this was not enough, and to this should be added delivery of services such as healthcare and education to the poor, inclusivity, equality of opportunity. Income and poverty were among the six categories of parameters which would be monitored at the national level and poverty was targeted to reduce by 10 per cent during the eleventh plan.

The twelfth plan’s (2012-17) tagline was ‘faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth’. Inclusiveness was directly related to the poverty eradication measures. The twelfth plan, however, noted that 29.8 per cent of the people were below the poverty line in 2009-10, as per the Tendulkar Committee estimates. The twelfth plan reiterated the target of reducing poverty by 10 per cent by the end of the plan. The twelfth plan also noted that the reduction of poverty between 2004-05 to 2009-10 was much higher than during the 1993-94 to 2003-04 as per NSS estimates. This reduction would be even faster in the twelfth plan.

Today, there are many poverty ratios, based on different studies, namely, the Tendulkar estimates, the Global Multi-Dimensional estimate, the World Bank estimate (of USD 1.9 a day on PPP basis) and so on. As per the Global Multi-dimensional estimate (which includes parameters such as education and healthcare), India’s poverty level is 16.4 per cent. Other estimates put it at 2.5 per cent (Surjit Bhalla and others), 10 per cent (ADB) and so on. The short point is that poverty levels have declined, but there continue to be areas of extreme poverty and low levels of nutrition which need to be better targeted.

Conclusion

India has come a long way in its fight against poverty, but there are regions where it persists. The UN has also commended the efforts, and estimated that 415 million people have been lifted from below the poverty line between 2004-05 to 2019-21. Our focus should now be on targeting the regions where this scourge continues, and on ensuring better delivery of services such as education, primary healthcare, cheap food grains, and ensuring jobs through training and skilling.

The writer is Addl. Chief Secretary, Dept of Mass Extension, Education and Library Services, Govt of West Bengal.