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Rural poverty approaches, policies & strategies in India

India's various states differ significantly in terms of economic growth and poverty reduction. Over the past few decades, India has allocated 6 per cent to 7 per cent of budgetary expenditures, or 1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), to its antipoverty programmes. The initiatives have supported mainly food subsidies, subsidized credit, improvement of rural infrastructure and rural employment schemes.

Targets of the Government of India's Eleventh National Development Plan (2007-2012) include:

• improving access to and the quality of essential public services for poor rural people, including health and education, by implementing and improving specific programmes and involving the voluntary sector
• creating a broader base for income growth by doubling the agricultural growth rate to 4 per cent
• harmonizing the government's various self-employment schemes and implementing an integrated self-employment programme
• giving special attention to scheduled castes, tribes and minorities, and especially to the economic empowerment of women in those groups

The Eleventh Plan provides an opportunity to restructure policies according to a new vision of growth that is more broadly based and inclusive, to achieve a faster reduction in poverty.
 

Source: IFAD