Major gain
   Date :18-Oct-2019

 
THE criticism notwithstanding that India is not doing well on the economic front, the World Bank has good news to share -- that India has halved its poverty rate since 1990s, and is on the way to eliminating extreme poverty in a decade from now. No matter the criticism of certain policies of the Government -- by anybody -- factually enough indicators are available to conclude that on the economic front in a tickling condition, India has done well consistently. That is the reason the World Bank noted that India has registered a major success in its fight against poverty.
 
The story of India’s ongoing fight against poverty is chequered, to say the least, thanks to many a wrong concept the Government embraced from time to time. One of the worst points in the fight was the political slogan of Garibi Hatao by the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi who did win major electoral battles on its basis. Because fighting poverty became a part of the electoral slogan-mongering, its actual importance was missed in implementing appropriate policies that would benefit the poor. So, even though the slogan brought electoral success, the poor did not benefit much since no serious thought backed the talk. Subsequent efforts, too, got bogged down because of a more or less similar handling of the issue. One of the main drawbacks in the approach was that the Government sought to offer, say, a fish to the hungry so that he could feed himself for a day, but never taught him how to do fishing.
 
Another worse fallout of that policy was that the poor did not become autonomous enough to make a living for themselves but depended heavily on the freebies. Thus, poverty was fought on such a piecemeal basis rather than on a substantial economic empowerment of the poor. Unfortunately, the concept of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) also has more or less similar facets that do not actually empower the poor to fight their own economic battle. No matter these flaws in the thought and action, at a slow pace the nation kept up its fight against poverty, chipping at the monster in bit by bit.
 
All that is now reflecting in the statistical details of the poor are faring in the country in the past some years. The latest thrust against poverty came in the past five years when the poor got multiple benefits on several counts such as highly subsidised cooking gas, electric connections, healthcare support and the like. All these did result in reducing the extent of poverty in the country. These efforts were so well directed that the world has begun appreciating India’s campaign. So effective has the campaign been that Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi made a proud mention of it in his speeches particularly in the United States and the United Nations. However, it is necessary for the country to remember that the fight against poverty is a long haul and would need sustained efforts to succeed.
 
The leadership will have to work for a day when the process of economic empowerment of the poor is withdrawn from the direct benefit transfer zone to acquisition of skills and their utilisation to make honourable living. That would be the ideal stage when the Government does not have to pump a lot of money into the pockets of the poor with nothing in return by way of generation of some surplus. With that in mind, the Government is implementing forcefully a skill development programme all over the country so that the poor people in urban and rural areas acquire some skill that they can convert into an economic activity. The cumulative gain from this programme, however, is a way away and the country will have to wait until that good day. Nevertheless, it must be said that India’s fight against poverty is getting to some point that the world is beginning to see clearly.