A PROJECT ON

Poverty trends in India with special respect to Maharashtra

Gujarat And Rajasthan
SUBMITTED TO

DR. ERITRIYA ROY

(FACULTY –Economics)

SUBMITTED BY

AJAY BHATT

SEMESTER-III
SECTION- ‘B’
ROLL NO- 05
(B.A., L.L.B.Hons.)

HIDAYATULLAH NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

NEW RAIPUR (C.G.)
1
 Acknowledgement

I, Pankaj Sharma, feel myself highly exulted to come out with the work “Poverty trends in
India with special respect to Maharashtra Gujarat And Rajasthan” as it gives me
tremendous pleasure of having done thorough research on the subject to present in a
comprehensive manner.

I take this opportunity to express my profound gratitude and deep regards to my guide Dr.
Eritriya Roy for his exemplary guidance and constant encouragement throughout the course of
this work.

PANKAJ SHARMA

Semester III ‘B’

Roll No 05

2
 Abstract

Poverty infact is a socio-economic phenomenon that is intimately associated with inequality. It

adversely affects human health, efficiency and productivity which in turn affect their income. It
deprives a segment of society of bare necessities of life- food, clothing, housing, education and
health. Poverty is more of social marginalization of an individual, household or group in the
community/society rather than inadequacy of income to fulfill the basic needs. Indeed,
inadequate income is therefore one of the factors of marginalization but not the sole factor. The
goal of poverty alleviation programme should aim merely increasing the income level of
individual, household or group but mainstreaming marginalized in the development process of
the country. The country cannot claim economic growth when sections of the people are
marginalized to the periphery of the society. The rapid economic growth process should
accelerate the access to services like education and health services for all, especially the
marginalized citizens. In India, even now in spite of all the development during the past five and
a half decades, 34.3% of the population was getting less than $ 1 (PPP) a day.

3
Contents

Acknowledgement

Abstract

1. Introduction...................................................................................5

1.1 Objectives of the study........................................................7

1.2 Research Methodology........................................................7

2. Poverty trends in Rajasthan ....................................................8

3. Poverty trends in Maharashtra .........................................11
4. Poverty trends in Gujarat …………………………………………14

Conclusion............................. .....................................................................17

Bibliography/ Webliography.......................................................................18

4
 Introduction
In general, poverty can be defined as a situation when people are unable to satisfy the basic
needs of life. The definition and methods of measuring poverty differs from country to country.
According to the definition by Planning Commission of India, poverty line is drawn with an
intake of 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. If a person is unable to get
that much minimum level of calories, then he/she is considered as being below poverty line.
Poverty is multidimensional Deprivation in income, illiteracy, malnutrition, mortality, morbidity,
access to water and sanitation, vulnerability to economic shocks.

Indian poverty as an attribute of socio-economic stagnation is no doubt a legacy of the past. But
its character is not merely socio-economic, it is also built into the geography of the country. The
geographical aspect of poverty, once again, has been highlighted by the district data which show
wide variations in the productivity per hectare on the one hand and population density on the
other. It appears that in 70 districts out of 282, the compound growth rate of productivity has
been negative, and in 62 districts, it has averaged below 1.5 percent per annum. Poverty trends
may be statistically decomposed into two factors; (i) changes due to growth/decline in consumer
expenditure per person and (ii) changes due to redistribution of consumer expenditure.

Estimates of rural poverty show an upward trend in most of the States. For the country as a
whole the linear trend growth rate of rural poor is 0.762 per cent per year. By comparison, the
trend rates of "destitutes" and "severe Destitutes" are slightly lower being at 0.622 per cent and
0.455 per cent respectively.

Urban

In urban India poverty has increased at 0.313 percent per year which is less than half the rate of
growth of rural poverty. Likewise, the trend growth rates of destitutes and severe destitutes in
urban India (0.256 per cent and 0.138 per cent respectively) are substantially lower. Inter-state
differentials in urban poverty trends are also comparably less bleak. In six states the trend rates
are negative. Jammu and Kashmir shows the highest rate of decline (? .010 per cent per year)
followed by Punjab (0.436 per cent), Orissa (0.307 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (-0.28.6 per cent),
Karnataka (0.034 per cent), Rajasthan (0.164 percent).

5
Effects of changing structure of production and income generation process on poverty and
inequality.

• Adequacy of social sector expenditure by the state governments who have primary
responsibility for education and health sectors.

• Changing labour market conditions and casualisation of labour.

• Role of public investment in infrastructure and irrigation.

• Effectiveness of credit delivery system to underdeveloped regions after liberalization of the

financial sector.

• Whether macro policies affect poverty primarily through growth or they play additional role in
addition to the growth effects.

• Some states have made substantial progress in poverty reduction while others continue to stay
on almost where they were a decade ago. Which forces have contributed to this situation:
structural factors, inadequacy of resources or governance issues?

6
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

 To understand the poverty trends in India

 To enumerate the poverty trends in Gujarat
 To examine the poverty trends in Maharashtra
 To examine poverty trends in Rajasthan

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research is descriptive and analytical in nature. Secondary and electronic resources have
been largely used to gather information and data about the topic.

Books and other reference as guided by the faculty have been primarily helpful in giving
this project a firm structure. Websites, dictionaries and articles have also been referred.

Bibliography has been provided at the end to acknowledge the same

POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES OF GOVERNMENT

7
Poverty alleviation programmes of various types have expanded in size and today there is a wide
variety of such programmes absorbing a large volume of resources. The annual Plan provision in
2002–3 for CSS in rural development is Rs180bn, for food subsidy Rs240bn, and for fertiliser
subsidy about Rs110bn, making a total of Rs530bn. Against this, the provision for irrigation is
only Rs28bn and for afforestation only Rs6bn. There is a case for examining whether the
resources used for poverty alleviation schemes and for various types of subsidies in the name of
poor may not be more effective in alleviating poverty if directed to various types of asset
creation programmes in rural areas. For instance, several evaluations of the then Integrated Rural
Development Programme under the Ministry of Rural Development show that the projects
undertaken under the programme suffer from numerous defects including especially sub-critical
investment levels; non-viable projects; lack of technological and institutional capabilities in
designing and executing projects utilising local resources and expertise; illiterate and unskilled
beneficiaries with no experience in managing an enterprise; indifferent delivery of credit by
banks (high transaction cost, complex procedure, corruption, one-time credit, poor recovery);
overcrowding of lending in certain projects such as dairy; poor targeting with a high proportion
of the non-poor included; absence of linkage between different components of the IRDP; rising
indebtedness; and the capacity of government and banks to implement the IRDP being
outstripped by the increase in its scale. A disturbing feature of the IRDP in several States has
been the rising indebtedness of its beneficiaries. Besides, the programme for upgrading skills,
TRYSEM (Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment), was not dovetailed with IRDP, until
its absorption into SGSY. Some reviews discovered non-existent training centres and non-
payment of stipend in some cases. However, the programme for women, Development of
Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) did well in some States (AP, Kerala and
Gujarat). Evaluation of the programmes for wage employment also reveals serious weaknesses:
inadequate employment and thin spread of resources; violation of material-labour (60:40) norms;
fudging of muster rolls; and schemes implemented universally through contractors who
sometimes hired outside labourers at lower wages.. The ideal policy should be to discourage its
use even by construction Ministries, such as Railways and CPWD, and compensate them
financially to build incentives for employing more manual labour. However, the reverse is
happening. Not only is labour being displaced in the so-called employment oriented schemes,
food meant for the poor is then sold in the market, thus distorting the markets faced by farmers.

8
The programme for rural housing, although quite popular because of the large sum involved (a
grant of Rs20,000 per beneficiary), has led to a strengthening of dependence of the rural poor on
the élite. 19 Given the large number of potential beneficiaries awaiting the allotment of a free
house and limited resources, a situation has been created wherein the poor are divided among
themselves. There would also be pressure from the local MLAs and MPs to ensure that their
followers are prioritised for the allocation of a house. Thus the scheme dis-empowers the poor
collectively while providing a small number of them individually with a valuable asset. Instances
of corruption to the tune of Rs5,000 to 8,000 out of the approved amount of Rs20,000 have also
been detected. The mandatory provision for joint registration of houses in the name of both
husband and wife is flouted in most cases. In many States, field-level functionaries are unaware
of the existence of such a provision. The changes recommended for the Tenth Plan, which remain
relevant today, were that: · SGSY (IRDP) should be transformed into a micro-finance programme
to be run by banks with no subsidy, on the lines of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh. · Funds should be
provided to gram sabhas (village assemblies) only when the people contribute a substantial
amount, say, 25% in normal administrative blocks and 15% in tribal/poor blocks. · Employment
programmes should be replaced by the food for work programme to be run only in areas of
distress. In all areas, the focus should be on undertaking productive works and their maintenance,
such as rural roads, watershed development, rejuvenation of tanks, afforestation and irrigation. ·
Rural development funds should also be used for enhancing the budgetary allocation of
successful rural development schemes that are being run by State governments, or for meeting
States’ contributions to donor assisted programmes for poverty alleviation. · Grassroots women’s
groups should be empowered and encouraged to implement selected poverty alleviation schemes,
particularly food-for-work schemes in areas affected by natural disasters. · Direct income transfer
schemes should be promoted for particular categories of the poor, such as Integrated Child
Development Schemes (ICDS) and mid-day meal schemes, and at the same time take into
account wide differences in the efficiency of implementation of different kinds of support. Old-
age pensions are administered with only minor mis-allocation or leakage (Nayak et al, 2002) but
severely underfunded. For instance, GoI arrives at its annual pension allocation of approximately
Rs5bn on the basis of two assumptions: first, that 50% of those above the age of 65 and below
the poverty line are looked after by their relatives and so do not require a pension, 14 and second,
that the States will supplement the Rs75/person/month provided by central government. In fact,

9
the nominal State supplementation varies between Rs25 and Rs125/person/month, and in
practice, fiscal crisis in the States means that its payment is not guaranteed. Further, the
individual pension allocation is extremely low, and inadequate to provide even the barest
subsistence. In these circumstances, the current GoI allocation of some Rs6bn/year could easily
be increased by a factor of three or four with little danger of wastage. Insofar as Centrally
Sponsored Schemes continue to exist into the future, then the provision of old-age pensions to
the needy must be one of the most enlightened policies that central government could promote –
and one of the most robust in the face of chronic implementation weaknesses. · Special efforts
should be made to strengthen the economy of marginal and small farmers, forest produce
gatherers, artisans, unskilled workers, etc. The poor should not merely benefit from growth
generated elsewhere; they should contribute to growth

Chapter 2

Rajasthan

The population of Rajasthan is over 56.5 million, and the population density is about 165 persons
per square kilometer. The state is overwhelmingly rural, with more than three-quarters of the
population still residing in rural areas. It has one of the highest proportions of Scheduled Caste
(SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) population among Indian states—at 17.2 percent and 12.6
percent respectively Rajasthan started to close the development gap during the 1980s. Growth
rates accelerated sharply, poverty fell significantly, and several human development indicators
showed notable improvements. Indeed, by the end of the 1990s, Rajasthan's low levels of
poverty compared to some richer states presented a paradox. Since then, however, Rajasthan's
growth performance has faltered, threatening the progress over the last two decades. It is now
critical to restore growth rates and actively promote human development to close the
development gap that still exists between Rajasthan and the more developed states. The stylized
facts concerning Rajasthan's growth since 1960 reveal three episodes. In the first episode, after
its late start with difficult initial conditions noted earlier, Rajasthan experienced two decades of
slow growth during the 1960s and 1970s. In the second episode, growth rates accelerated
significantly and reached 6.2 percent during 1980-2000, one of the highest among Indian states.
In the third episode, Rajasthan's economic growth faltered markedly in recent years, and per
capita income growth has fallen to about 2.2 percent compared to 3.4 percent in the 1990s. Not

10
only have aggregate growth rates declined, they have also become much more volatile and their
decline pervasive. High growth rates during the 1980s and 1990s were driven by three key
factors. These include the rapid growth of industry and services that created a more diversified
economy and lowered volatility; investment and the development of infrastructure; and an
increase in human capital During the 1990s, when data are available, growth in capital accounted
for almost 50 percent of aggregate growth.Capital deepening took the form of an appreciable
increase in infrastructure in irrigation, electricity and road connectivity. Labor force growth
contributed about 22 percent, with total factor productivity improvements accounting for the
remainder of aggregate growth. Finally, the rising trend in years of schooling and increasing size
of the labor force together contributed to a growth in labor productivity of over 4 percent per
annum Employment growth in Rajasthan during the 1980s and 1990s largely followed the
national employment growth rate, though the sources of growth differed. Employment grew at
2.2 percent per annum in the state compared to 2.1 percent in India. The growth in the aggregate
number of jobs during the past two decades came from agriculture, industry, and services in
roughly equal proportions. This is in some contrast to national trends where industry provided
only about a quarter of the new jobs over the same period. Within industry, however,
manufacturing provided only 8 percent of new jobs in Rajasthan compared to 14 percent in India,
while construction and mining accounted for 22 percent and 5 percent respectively, compared to
national figures of 8 percent and 0.5 percent respectively The percentage of the population living
below the poverty line has been declining steadily in Rajasthan Compared to 13.11 million in
1987- 88, an estimated 8.65 million people were living below the poverty line in 1999-2000,
making Rajasthan home to about 3.8 percent of India's poor. The poverty rate in Rajasthan
appears to be lower than what per capita income levels would suggest. In terms of real per capita
income ranking for the 14 major Indian states, Rajasthan is fifth from the bottom. However, only
four states have lower poverty rates than Rajasthan The poverty rate is almost seven percentage
points lower than national averages, even with below-average per capita income The composite
Human Development Index (HDI) measure puts Rajasthan at ninth rank among India's 15 major
states for 2001, and shows improvement over the last two decades In education, key indicators
have been on an upward trajectory in recent years, and the gap with national averages has been
closing Broad NSS region level data suggests that the rural part of Southern Rajasthan has the
highest poverty rate in Rajasthan, at over 35 percent.28 District-level measures of aggregate

11
human development for Rajasthan's. Gender disparities for most indicators are higher than
national averages. For example, the juvenile sex ratio for Rajasthan is 909 girls per 1,000 boys in
the 0-6 year age-group, which compares unfavorably with the national average of 927 in 2001.
The new Chief Minister has announced her vision for the state, which shows a clear appreciation
of the overall challenges. The vision focuses on the following "Six Ideals" that can help guide
reforms:

􀂊 Eliminating hunger, malnutrition, starvation, below-subsistence levels of living, and abject

poverty;

􀂊 Providing gainful employment, creating livelihoods, and improving economic status;

􀂊 Creating economic infrastructure;

􀂊 Emphasizing human resource development, creating capabilities, filling gaps in social

infrastructure;

􀂊 Enhancing governance, including fiscal reform;

􀂊 Taking special care of disadvantaged groups, particularly women.

These programmes are broadly classified into: The targeted programmes fall into four broad
categories: (i) self-employment programmes (ii) wage employment programmes (iii) direct cash
transfers to the targeted groups and (iv) Public distribution system (PDS). There are numerous
centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) under the first three categories which are designed by the
Centre, administered by the Ministry of Rural Development, but implemented by the States with
States generally contributing 25% to their cost

12
 Chapter 3
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is the second largest state in India in terms of population and has geographical area
about 3.08 lakh sq. km. It has a population of 11.24 crore (Census 2011) which is 9.3 per cent of
the total population of India and is highly urbanised with 45.2 per cent people residing in urban a
The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at current prices for 2013-14 is estimated a
15,10,132 crore. Industry and Services sector both together contribute 88.7 per cent to the GSDP
while the contribution of Agriculture & Allied Activities sector is 11.3 per cent Maharashtra is
one of the highly industrialised states. It is pioneer in Small Scale Industries and continues to
attract industrial investments from both, domestic as well as foreign institutions. It is a major IT
growth centre As per India Human Development Report 2011, India’s Human Development
Index is 0.467 whereas it is 0.572 for the State Maharashtra presents the co-existence of both
affluence and poverty at high levels. The per capita income in Maharashtra at Rs.114,392 in
2013-14 stands next only to Haryana among all the major states, while the national per capita
income is distinctly lower at Rs.74,380. On the other hand, the poverty rate in the state at 18% is
close to the national average and shows sharp urban-rural disparity. While the urban poverty rate
at 9% is lower than the national average by 5 percentage points, the rural poverty rate at 24% is
less than the national average by only 1 percentage point. Despite high income levels on an
average, the state has not managed to provide balanced growth to all its regions. The economy of
Maharashtra has gone through a faster structural shift from agriculture to industry and services,
compared with the shift seen at the national level. While the agricultural sector grew at less than
5% per annum since 2004-05, industry and services sectors grew at 8% and 10% per annum,
respectively. While it is easy to conclude that rapid growth of the urban-centric sectors of
industry and services has resulted in a lower level of urban poverty in the state, the picture
changes at the micro level. About 22% of the total poor population in the state of Maharashtra is
from the four main urban centres. Around 50% of the population in Mumbai lives in slums.
Leaving aside the job opportunities, even the basic facilities of proper sanitation and clean
drinking water do not adequately reach the people. However, it is evident that development is the
key to reducing poverty—the areas with a high level of facilities available do have the lowest
levels of poverty. Accordingly, a more uniform and balanced development is one of the solutions

13
to reducing poverty. The rural economy of Maharashtra, like any other state of India, is largely
dependent on agriculture. While agriculture’s contribution to the state income has rapidly
declined, the workforce has continued to depend on this sector, indicating limited employment
opportunities in other sector.
Year Rural Urban

2004-05 446.7 578.8

2009-10 672.8 859.6

2011-12 816.0 1000.0

Source: Report of the Expert Group to Review the Methodology for Estimation of
Poverty (2009)

Central norms of earmarking, such as 40% of funds for watershed development and 20% for
minor irrigation, have not been followed. Today Rs60 out of Rs100 in wage schemes is reserved
for wages, but in reality only Rs10 to Rs15 actually goes to the labourer, the rest is illegal
income for bureaucracy, contractors and politicians. In flagrant violation of the guidelines, in
many States projects are being executed by using excavators, trucks and tractors instead of more
labour intensive approaches. This is being done with full knowledge of the senior officials. For
example, in Krishna district (Deshingkar and Johnson, forthcoming), out of 54 works, excavators
were employed in 40 cases. Poclaines (the trade name for a kind of earth excavator) are
becoming the preferred machine for undertaking a variety of village works through all kinds of
programmes from the point of view of the rich (often MLAs and other political leaders) who own
the machines and hire them out for public works. One Poclaine can displace 17x8 persons in an
eight hour day (at 17 person-days per hour), whereas it costs Rs800 to hire a Poclaine for an
hour. During five year plans, several programes has been introduced to alleviate poverty in
India, yet there has been an increase in the number of poor persons in the country. There were
about 32.1 crore persons living below poverty line in 1973-784. It remained almost stagnant
during a decade of 1973-1983 but it come down to 26 crore in 1999-2000 and 22 crore in 2004-
05. poverty in rural sector always been on higher side as compared to urban India. But it came
down in 2004-05 in both rural and urban sector. By the end of 11th plan number of poor persons
are expected to come down to 10 crore.

14
1. PRIME MINISTER’S ROZGAR YOJANA (PMRY):
2. DROUGHT PRONE AREAS PROGRAMME (DPAP), DESERT DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME
3. (DDP) AND INTEGRATED WASTELANDS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
(IWDP):
4. PRIME MINISTER EMPLOYMENT GENERATION PROGRAMME (PMEGP)
5. PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
6. NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (NREGS)
7. NATIONAL FOOD FOR WORK PROGRAMME:
8. VALMIKI AMBEDKAR AWAS YOJANA (VAMBAY
9. PRADHAN MANTRI GRAMODAYA YOJANA (PMGY):
10. ANNPURNA YOJANA :
11. PRADHAN MANTRI GRAM SADAK YOJANA (PMGSY):
12. ANTYODAYA ANNA YOJANA (AAY):
13. INDIRA AWAAS YOJANA (IAY):
14. SWARAN JAYANTI GRAM SWAROZGAR YOJANA (SGSY)
15. SWARNA JAYANTI SHAHRI ROZGAR YOJANA (SJSRY)
16. NATIONAL SOCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME(NSAP):

15
 Chapter 4

Gujarat
Poverty in Gujarat according to NSS data has declined drastically since 1983. This is especially
true for the urban sector, but also, to a lesser extent, for the rural sector. Except for the
controversial 55th Round, poverty appears to have declined in both absolute and percentage
terms. The rate of decline in poverty is different in rural and urban areas, The decline in rural
poverty according to official data has been slower than that of urban poverty, both in absolute
and percentage terms. In fact rural poverty has increased slightly in absolute terms between
1993-94 and 2004-05, while the decline in terms of percentage has been marginal in this period.
On the other hand, the percentage of urban poor between 1987-88 and 2004-05 shows a marked
decline. We can see a change in the trend after 1987-88; the rate of decline of rural poverty has
shown a marked slowdown while the rate of decline of urban poverty has increased considerably,
as opposed to the pre-reform period. In comparison to the overall trend for India, Gujarat has
shown a markedly better performance in terms of official poverty figures, both at the rural and
the urban levels. Again in terms of urban poverty, though there is also a decline at the all-India
level after 1987-88, the decline is much sharper in Gujarat. In terms of rural poverty on the other
hand Gujarat shows fluctuations in the trend. While the rate of decline in rural poverty was
sharper for Gujarat than for the all-India figures during the period 1987- 88 to 1993-94, this trend
has been reversed in the next 11 years. Rural poverty does decline both for Gujarat and at all-
India levels between 1993-94 and 2004-05, but the rate of decline is slower in Gujarat than at the
all-India levels. While at the all-India level the percentage of poverty declined from 37.27% to
28.3% between 1993-94 and 2004-05 (i.e. a fall of 8.07 percentage points), at the Gujarat level
the decline was from 22.18% to 19.1% (a fall of3.02 percentage points) in the same period. Also
the rate of decline in rural poverty at the state level has slowed between 1993-94 and 2004-05
(3.02 percentage points), compared to the rate in the previous five years (6.49 percentage points).
The official data on poverty indicate a sharp decline, especially in the urban areas. Rural poverty
according to the official data has also declined, although slowly. However other measures of
poverty as well as other indicators of development do not show such a positive situation in the
state. Poverty measured by more broad-based indicators (the BPL Census method) results in
larger percentages of the population being recorded as being poor. Apart from this, other

16
indicators of development in the state- specifically employment- indicate a decline in the state's
performance A thorough analysis of the trends in employment and unemployment in the state
indicates that the situation is not an unmixed one. In terms of employment figures Gujarat has
done generally better than India. However, while rural male and female employment in Gujarat
has been consistently rising (after 19.83 in the case of males and after 1987-88 in the case of
females), growth rates in rural male usual status While employment rates, especially in the urban
sector, have shown an increasing trend in the state, rural employment growth has slowed down
and become negative between the last two NSS Rounds. Rural employment in the state has also
remained concentrated in the agricultural sector, with very little diversification. The difference
between employment growth in rural and urban sectors of the state must be considered in the
light of the relative size of the two sectors. While urban areas still continue to be the fastest
growing in Gujarat, the gap between the growth rates of rural and urban areas is perceptibly
narrowing. Between 1991 and 2001 the rate of growth of population has increased as compared
to the period 1981-1991. The rate of growth of population in the rural areas has picked up and
that in the urban areas has declined as compared to 1981-1991. The stagnation and fluctuation in
rural employment compared to that in the urban sector must be viewed in the light of this The
decline in official poverty figures is also not in keeping with the trends in Foodgrain availability
is defined as net output (gross output minus one-eighth on account of seed, feed and wastage),
plus net imports and minus net additions to public stocks. (Private stock estimates, if they are
available, should also be added.) foodgrain availability. Foodgrain production has been
fluctuating and foodgrain availability in India has shown a declining trend. However, there is a
sharp decline in per capita foodgrain availability in the years following reforms. Figure 4.8
indicates the trends in foodgrain production and availability in India in the triennia ending in the
years of the NSS large sample rounds, In the rural sector, employment has clearly stagnated and
rates of unemployment have also been fluctuating without any declining trend. There is also
increasing casualisation of labour in the rural areas. Official poverty figures, on the other hand,
indicate a decline, albeit a slow one, in rural poverty in the state. These two facts seem mutually
contradictory. One argument to explain this could be that the rural population increasingly draws
its income from urban areas i.e. through rural urban migration. However rates of growth of urban
population between the 1991 and 2001 censuses have declined, which disproves this claim.
Therefore the issue of increasing casualisation and fluctuating unemployment as against

17
declining poverty figures in the state needs further examination. Foodgrain availability in India
has declined in the decade of the 1990s and thereafter The ruling BJP has always boasted about
Gujarat’s development model, and used it to the hilt in the Lok Sabha polls. “The Gujarat model
is more about ideologically-neutral good governance than the sort of big-bang reforms seen in
1980s Britain and America Gujarat's growth rate actually declined during the time that Modi has
been in power. "Gujarat's annual average growth rate (AAGR) was 14.97% during 1980-1990
and 12.77% during 1990-2000, way higher than the national average of 5.5%. Between 2001-11,
the AAGR plummeted to 9.82%, only 1.26% more than the national average," argued Shah.

"While Gujarat's budget increased from Rs 28,000 crore in 2001 to Rs 1,20,000 crore in 2013-14,
public debt during the same period increased from Rs 26,000 crore to Rs 1,68,000 crore," said
Scheme/Programme
Shah. He claimed Modi has hypnotizedProposed out lay XIth Five Year
and mesmerized people into believing in his growth
(2007-2012) (Lakh Rs.)
model, and virtually demolished the BJP. "There is no BJP. Modi is the state,
SJGSY 29656.12
SGRY 18016.64
DPIP9SS (EAP) / EAPII Phase 23158.72
Rural roads 50000.00
Indira Avas Yojana 27766.71
IWDP 10598.56
DRDA 6012.36
DPAP 21294.84
Gramin Ajivika Pariyaojna 22480.00
National Rural Rojgar Gurantee 199881.85
Scheme
MP Rojgar Gurantee Council 3800.00

Mid day meal 69.462.00

BRGF 225695.00
Community Development 29265.20
Walmi 1250.00
Raod maintenance 2030.00
State rural road Connectivity 8647.60
CM Awas Yojana (Apna Ghar) 6200.00
State SGSY 1800.00
Training 50.00
Master Plan 1363.00
Gokul Gram adhosanrachan 5000.00 18
Sutradhar scheme 50.00
Grand total 7,64,478.50
 Conclusion

Poverty is more of social marginalisation of an individual, household or group in the

community/society rather than inadequacy of income to fulfill the basic needs. Indeed,
inadequate income is therefore one of the factors of marginalisation but not the sole factor. The
goal of poverty alleviation programme should aim merely increasing the income level of
individual, household or group but mainstreaming marginalised in the development process of
the country. The country cannot claim economic growth when sections of the people are
marginalised to the periphery of the society. The rapid economic growth process should
accelerate the access to services like education and health services for all, especially the
marginalised citizens. The government should also aware the rural population about the
importance of small family and mortality rate. Poverty give birth too many other problems. The
link between ignorance and poverty and ill health and poverty are well-established. There are
diseases of poverty such as malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and malnutrition. Having fallen ill
due to poverty, the poor do not have the resources to seek quality health care, for which he/she
has to borrow money for treatment. Indebtness due to hospitalisation leading to poverty has been
well documented. Poverty therefore is a complex phenomenon of many dimensions not merely
the economic dimension. So government should provide better medical facilities, drinking water
facilities and education so that people living below poverty line can improve their lives [9].
Yesudian (2000) also suggested that Poverty alleviation programmes should also address the
issue of poverty from broader social and economic perspectives.

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 References
1. Patel .V, Kirkwood, B.R, Pednekar S, Weiss H, Mabey D. (2006), Risk factors for
common mental disorders in women. Population based longitudinal study. Br J
Psychiatry, Vol.189, pp. 547-55.
2. POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES IN TENTH PLAN
planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/.../wg_rulpovty.pdf
3. Economic Survey 2009-2010, website : http:/indiabudget.nic.in. Visited on 9 May 2012
4. Yesudian, C.A.K. (2007), Poverty alleviation programmes in India: A social audit, Indian
J Med Res, Vol.126, pp 364-373.
5. Srinivasulu Bayineni, (2006), IUP Journal of Managerial Economics, Volume (Year): vol.
IV, issue. 3, Pages: 79-89
6. Ministry of rural development, Govt. of India, chpater 7th –Rural Development, Pp.88-
99. accessed on 3October 2012.

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