POVERTY Alleviation
-BY RAHUL SINGH
Introduction
Poverty alleviation, also known as poverty reduction, involves efforts to improve the quality of life for people living in poverty. This can include economic measures, social programs, and policies aimed at providing better access to resources like food, education, healthcare, and employment opportunities.
India had took various indicatives to cope up with the growing population and level of poverty while playing WHO playing central role in monitoring the increasing poverty and hunger and malnutrition which has been in surge due to various factors.
The World Health Organization (WHO) plays a significant role in poverty alleviation through its various health initiatives and programs. While WHO is primarily focused on global health, its efforts are closely linked to poverty reduction because health and poverty are deeply interconnected.
Causes Of Poverty
Poverty is a complex issue with multiple interrelated causes. Here are some of the primary factors contributing to poverty:
1. Lack of Education : Limited access to quality education restricts opportunities for better-paying jobs and economic advancement. Illiteracy causes increase in population leading to falling of per capita income. More children’s lead to pressure on the resources available, thus contributing to poverty.
2. Unemployment and Underemployment: Insufficient availability of jobs and low wages causes people from earning enough to meet their basic needs. This is driven due to lack of proper education and population explosion which are faced by the developing or underdeveloped countries.
3. Social equality:Discrimination based on gender, caste, ethnicity, and other social factors can limit access to resources and opportunities. Discrimination prevails due to one factor that i.e lack of awareness and education and moreover people lack of knowledge.
4. Conflict and Political Instability: Wars, conflicts, and political instability disrupt economies, displace populations, and destroy infrastructure. This is mainly due to one fact that is corruption and hunger or lust for power and this causes people to suffer as it leads to accumulation of black money and sufferings to down trodden.
5. Climate Change and Natural: Disasters Environmental factors like droughts, floods, and storms can devastate communities, particularly those reliant on agriculture. Climate change due to cause of global warming and lack of awareness among the people which is mainly due to lack of proper awareness and education.
6. Poor Health and Lack of Healthcare: Illnesses and lack of access to healthcare can trap individuals and families in a cycle of poverty. Healthcare is mainly dependent on the growth of the economy and as the burden of population increases day by day it leads to pressure on availability of healthcare resources to people and quality of it.
7. Economic Policies: Ineffective or harmful economic policies can exacerbate poverty by failing to address the needs of the poor. The policies are lacking to address the news of common people mainly not focusing on the core need like food security and poverty.
The list goes on but these factors are mainly contributed towards increment of poverty and resources available to the people.
Role Of WHO (World Health Organisation) in Poverty Alleviation
Now let’s discuss the major role played by WHO in reduction of poverty and the food security to the people .
Key Services and Initiatives by WHO in Poverty Alleviation:
Universal Health Coverage (UHC): WHO try to make ensure that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardships. It aims to provide health facilities to all, so that no person die due to negligence or non receiver of health amenities.
Disease Prevention and Control: WHO emphasises on reducing diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, which generally affect the poorer populations. This helps in prevention of deaths led by this diseases which are quite often to occur. Lack of education and sanitation causes lack of awareness and these diseases are quite widespread.
Maternal and Child Health: Programs aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality rates that is child life expectancy by improving nutrition, and ensuring access to essential health services. It main aim is to provide Nutrition to all as it reduce the chances of new born being suffering from nutritional deficiencies and death related to it.
Health Systems Strengthening: WHO main aim is to provide health services to all and its very challenging in under developed and developing countries because lack of proper infrastructure causes increase in deaths and non availability of health care to the poor who cant afford it.
Emergency Response: WHO made an emergency response team that look after the disaster which mainly affect the poorer section of the society. It main aim is to provide immediate necessity items to the people who are affected by the natural calamities.
Indian Government initiatives for eradication of Poverty
Various attempts are made by the World organisation to eradicate the poverty and make amenities and resources available to all and in this context lets discuss some of the Initiatives takes by the Government of India in various time frame.
India has implemented several initiatives and programs to alleviate poverty since gaining independence in 1947.
Here are some key steps taken between 1947 and 1990:
Indian Government introduced five year plans so as to tackle the growing issues in the country post independence . Poverty has been a major issue in our country which is mainly caused by growing level of population and unemployment and government are focusing on tackling the same from time to time by various initiatives .
1. First Five-Year Plan (1951-1956): Focused on agriculture and irrigation to boost food production and rural employment. Post independence India was in such a position that people couldn’t afford one time meal , the disparity between the poor and rich remained a major issue and lack of food resources was major issue. First five year was majorily focusing on growing the production of grains as to meet the demand of the people as India was dependent on USA for meeting the food demands and growing poverty was a major challenge .The First five year plan which was devised by K.N Raj became a major success as it bring about a whooping growth of 3.6% of the GDP while the projected was just 2.1%.
2. Third Five-Year Plan (1961-1966): Emphasized self-sufficiency in food grains and expanded rural employment programs. The third five year came when India was involved in INDO-PAK war and America didn’t wanted to supply food grains, the country changed its plan on being self reliant on food grains so as to meet the demand of people by itself . The series of war caused a high level of poverty and shortage of food grains, thus government emphasised on food grains to meet the demand of the people and reducing the ongoing inflation caused due to series of war.
3. Fifth Five-Year Plan (1974-1978): Introduced the “Garibi Hatao” (Remove Poverty) slogan by the sitting Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and focused on employment, poverty alleviation, and justice. The main aim of this five year plan was to provide job opportunities to people so as to improve the standard of people and elevating them from the poorer section of the society. The chair of the Prime Minister goes into to Morarji Desai whose government introduced Minimum Need Program whose to provide certain basic amenities to people to survive their living.
4. Seventh Five-Year Plan (1985-1990): While India was suffering from the lack of foreign exchange the year marked with the Social justice schemes so as to provide people with a good standard of living to the poor .This year was the main objective was to control the inflation and provide with people good standard of living through creation of jobs and social justice to the people. The Plan ended and marked with beginning of NEP Policy for 1991.
Plans Drafted for Poverty Elevation after 1990
1. Economic Reforms (1991) Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization (LPG): The need of the hour was due to rising inflation and shortage of foreign exchange in the country. The country was in situation of turmoil and people were suffering from active poverty and there was need of plans so as to improve the country situation . 1991 reforms was majorly opened the economy so as to attract foreign investment and shut down the suffering PSUs. These majors could provide employment in the economy and would reduce the rising inflation. The reforms majorly provided a push to the economy and further strengthen the economy by creating job opportunities and competiting with the public sectors which could not provide a good service to the people due to rising corruption. These reforms gave the country hostile look and promoted the economic growth.
2. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) (2005) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA): It was launched to provide 100 days guaranteed employment to the people in the rural sector, the main objective to strengthen the rural economy by providing employment. It main aim to give people a means to live by providing employment.
3. Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) (2015) : The main aim of this scheme was to provide affordable housing to the deprived class by providing loan at a subsidised rate. It would provide house to all so as to provide a base for living.
4. Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) (2014) : The main focus was inclusion of all to the banking sector. This scheme majorly focused on opening bank accounts to in the rural sector were banking facilities are not properly enquiped. The target is provide loans and scenes to poor people so as they could find a means of living and contribute to the economy as a whole.
5. National Food Security Act (NFSA) (2013) : This act majorly focus on proving food to the people on subsidised rate , in order to cover the vast majority of people who could not afford a food grains due to there level of income. This act also provides nutritional food to the pregnant women through Integrated child development system called anganbadi. It also focuses on providing mid day meal to the government schools so as to ensure the students get at least one time nutritious meals.
6. Ayushman Bharat (2018): It launched with the objective of providing secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation with 5 lacs coverage to family per year . This was focused to include and provide health care facilities to all so that none could die due to lack of funds.
7. Skill India Mission (2015) : This was introduced to include the young generation in the economy by providing skills and internships to them. It focused on making young generation skilled and provide employment to them.
The efforts made by the government and the international institutions is done on vast scale so as to achieve hunger free world by 2020 which is a cause of the poverty. Poverty alleviation is not only a moral target but it’s a target so as to achieve a world where none starves and deaths are not caused due to insufficiency of funds to afford foods.
Citations
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Poverty Alleviation Programs In India: A Study
By Srinivasulu Bayineni
Evaluating poverty alleviation strategies in a developing country
By PK Singh and H Chudasama, 2020. 10.1371/journal.pone.0227176
Poverty Alleviation Programmes
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Srinivasulu Bayineni, 2006. “Poverty Alleviation Programs In India: A Study
