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05/11/22 13:25 PM IST

Poverty Reduction

In News 
  • The recent release of the National family health survey (NFHS) data for 2019-21 allows for a detailed analysis of the progress in the reduction of absolute poverty and related determinants like nutrition.
Findings of the NFHS 
  • Multidimensional poverty declined at a compounded annual average rate of 4.8 per cent per year in 2005-2011 and more than double that pace at 10.3 per cent a year during 2011-2021.
  •  There are some issues with the 2011 child-mortality data, but for each of the 10 components of the MPI index, the rate of decline in 2011-2021 is considerably faster than in 2005-2011.
  •  The average equally weighted decline for nine indicators was 1.9 per cent per annum in 2005-2011 and a rate of 16.6 per cent per annum, more than eight times higher in 2011-2021.
  • Every single household survey or analysis has shown that consumption inequality declined during 2011-2021. This is consistent with the above finding of highly inclusive growth during 2011-2021.

Poverty Estimation in India 
  • Planning Commission Expert Group (1962) -It formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas at ₹20 and ₹25 per capita per year respectively.
  • YK Alagh Committee (1979)- It constructed a poverty line for rural and urban areas on the basis of nutritional requirements and related consumption expenditure.
  • Lakdawala Committee (1993)- It suggested that consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier. State specific poverty lines should be constructed. It asked for discontinuation of scaling of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics.
  • Tendulkar Committee (2009)- The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticized by many for being too low.
Measures taken to reduce Poverty 
  • Swachh Bharat Mission- The government’s Swachh Bharat mission in 2014-2021 constructed over 110 million toilets even if some were without easy access to water, many were.
  • Saubhagya Yojana- Similarly, close to one-third of Indians were deprived of electricity till as recently as 2014. It was only after a dedicated push (Saubhagya Yojana) that India managed to electrify every village, and eventually households. Electricity deprivation declined by a 28.2 per cent rate post-2014; between 2005 and 2011, the rate of decline was close to zero.
  • Jan Dhan Yojana: Another example is the Jan Dhan Yojana which made financial inclusion a reality in India, especially for women.
  • Ujjwala Yojana- On access to modern cooking fuel (through the Ujjwala Yojana), deprivation was nearly halved from 26 per cent to 14 per cent in just five years. The previous halving (2005/6 to 2015/16) took 10 years.
  • Awas Yojana- The affordable housing scheme (Awas Yojana) has meant that less than 14 per cent are now deprived, compared to thrice that number in 2011/12.
  • Jal Jeevan Mission- More recently, government has embarked on an ambitious project of ensuring universal access to piped water under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Rural piped water coverage was a little less than 17 per cent in 2019, but is now well above 54 per cent and expected to at least be near, if not meet, the 100 per cent target by 2024.
NFHS 
  • It is a multi-round, large-scale survey done in a representative sample of households across India to collect reliable and up-to-date information on fertility, family planning, mortality and maternal and child health.
  • The Government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare designated the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) as the nodal organisation in charge of providing coordination and technical guidance for the NFHS.
  • NFHS was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Source- The Hindu 

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