Poverty is a significant socio-economic issue in India, characterized by various dimensions including emotional and political factors. It can be defined in terms of absolute and relative poverty, with a recognized poverty line indicating minimum living standards necessary for health and dignity. Causes encompass individual, economic, social, demographic, and political factors, along with various strategies for alleviating rural poverty through government programs and initiatives.

1. Poverty

2. Meaning
• Poverty is one of the most widespread socio-economic problems of
India.
• It is, indeed, a common problem which is being faced with most of the
underdeveloped and the developing countries of the world.
• It is not only socio-economic but even emotional, cultural and political
in nature.
• The developments that have been taking place in this land for the past
seven decades have not been able to wipe our poverty.
• Poverty has been the root course of many of the problems.

3. Meaning
• Poverty is a situation that gives rise to a feeling of a discrepancy
between what one “has” and what one “should have”.
• Berstein Henry has identified the following dimensions of poverty:
• Lack of livelihood strategies
• Inaccessibility to resources (money, land, credit)
• Feeling of insecurity and frustrations
• Inability to maintain and develop social relations with others as a
consequence of lack of resources
• Poverty exists when one is not able to get sufficient food and other
necessities of life.

4. Definition
• Gillian and Gillin – “A condition in which a person either because of inadequate
income or unwise expenditures, does not maintain a scale of living high enough
to provide for his mental and physical efficiency and to enable him and his natural
dependents to function usually according to the standards of a society of which
he is a member”.
• Adam Smith – “Man is considered as rich or poor according to the degree in
which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, the conveniences and the
amusements of life”.
• Goddard – “Poverty is the insufficient supply of those things, which are requisite
for an individual to maintain himself and those dependent upon him in health
and vigour”.

5. Types of Poverty
• Absolute Poverty:
• Individual is not able to maintain a minimum decent standard of living to
maintain himself and his family.
• Absolute poverty is often known as “subsistence poverty” since it is based on
assessments of minimum subsistence requirements such as food, clothing,
shelter, health requirements etc.
• Relative Poverty:
• Developed the idea of relative stands, that is standards which are relative to
particular time and place.
• A person may be relatively poor among the persons of his own group who are
relatively rich.

6. Poverty line
• Poverty is perceived in terms of “poverty line” which is determined by
the prevailing standards of what is needed for health, efficiency,
nurturing of children, social participation, and the maintenance of
self-respect.
• In practice, however, the poverty line is drawn on the basis of a barest
minimum desirable nutritional standard of colorize intake.
• In India, the poverty line is drawn on the basis of a per capita (adult)
daily intake of 2,400 calories for the rural and 2,100 calories for the
urban areas.
• New poverty line: Rs 32 for rural India, Rs 47 for urban India

7. Poverty Line
No. of Rural poor No. of urban poor Total Percent of poor
Rangarajan Committee 260.5 million 102.5 million 363 million 29.5
Tendulkar committee 216.5 million 52.8 million 269 million 21.9%
Difference 44 million 49.7 million 93.7 million
• The expert committee set up by the Planning Commission last year under C
Rangarajan, former chairperson of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council,
has redefined the poverty line.
• According to the report of the committee, the new poverty line should be Rs 32
in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban areas (2011-12).
• The earlier poverty line figure was Rs 27 for rural India and Rs 33 for Urban India
(2004-05).

8. Measurements of Poverty
• The important measurements are:
• Malnutrition (below a limit of 2,100 to 2,400 calories per day)
• Low consumption expenditure (below Rs.259 per person per month at 1993-94)
• Low income (below Rs.520 per person per month at1993-94 price level)
• Chronic illness or poor health
• Illiteracy
• Unemployment and/or underemployment
• Unsanitary housing conditions
• Broadly, low national income, low per capita income, high disparity in income
distribution, weak defence, and the like.

9. Measurements of Poverty
• Some scholars have referred to poverty-linked characteristics of households to point
out the individuals form these households run a greater risk of being poor.
• The more important among these characteristics are:
• Absence of a full-time wage-earner in the house
• Households where men are above 60 years age
• Households headed by a female
• Households with more than six children of less than 18 years of age
• Households whose heads are living on daily wages
• Households whose members have less than the primary education
• Households with members without work experiences
• Households having members only with part-time employment

10. Causes of poverty
• Individual incapacity
• Economic factors
• Social factors
• Demographic factors
• Political factors
• Biological factors

11. Causes of poverty
• Individual incapacity
• Physical weakness, sickness (hereditary or accidental)
• Mental diseases
• Accidents
• Illiteracy
• Idleness
• Extravagance
• Demoralisation
• Large family

12. Causes of poverty: Individual incapacity
• Physical weakness, sickness (hereditary or accidental)
• Due to physical weakness or sickness, a man is unable to work and his income
decreases, a major portion of his income is also spend on the cure of
diseases.
• Mental diseases
• With mental disease a person becomes incapable of doing anything.
• On the other hand, poverty also increases mental disease.
• Accidents
• It make the person entirely incapable of work or it reduces his capacity.
• Bread winner of the family is involved in some serious accidents then the
whole family becomes poor.

13. Causes of poverty: Individual incapacity
• Illiteracy
• It increase poverty since the capacity to earn of a illiterate person is very low.
• Idleness
• Many persons, in spite of sufficient opportunity to work do not work because
of idleness and hence remain poor.
• Extravagance
• An extravagance person can waste any amount of money in no time.
• In fact the causes of poverty is not a lower income but excess of expenditure
over income.

14. Causes of poverty: Individual incapacity
• Demoralisation
• Demoralisation or the lowering of character and morale leads to personal
disorganisation and finally to poverty.
• For example, alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, evil habits will affects even
the persons of sufficiently high economic status, reduces the capacity and
cause escapism thus leading to poverty.
• Large family
• Too many children to bring up, the standard of living is definitely lowered and
the leads to poor quality of life.

15. Causes of poverty
• Economic factors
• Agricultural
• Unequal distribution
• Economic depression
• Unproductive hoarding
• Unwise economic policy
• Inadequate economic development
• Increasing unemployment
• Capital deficiency
• Human capital deficiency

16. Causes of poverty: Economic factors
• Agricultural
• Absence of sufficient manure, absence of improved tools and machines,
absence of means of irrigation and cattle of highbred, sufficient means to
protect the fields from pests and animals.
• People are following the traditional method of cultivation. So, less productivity.
• Unequal distribution
• Even the production is sufficient, unequal distribution of goods and thigs results
in poverty.
• Economic depression
• Decrease in trade and commerce, lack out of mills and factories, unemployment
of millions of labourers and small trades, low standard of living.

17. Causes of poverty: Economic factors
• Unproductive hoarding
• If a major portion of the wealth of the country is hoarded in unproductive
forms, the economic development of the country is seriously handicapped.
• Unwise economic policy
• Sometimes in spite of the presence of sufficient resources and manpower in a
country, the people remain poor because of the unwise economic policy of
the government.
• Inadequate economic development
• Our economic development since Independence has been disappointing in
certain respects.
• Many of our Five Year Plans ended in failure without achieving the targeted
growth.

18. Causes of poverty: Economic factors
• Increasing unemployment
• Our country has not provided enough employment opportunities for the
people.
• Hence unemployment is mounting.
• Capital deficiency
• Industries require huge capital for their fast growth.
• But lack of enough capital has hampered the growth of our industries.
• Human capital deficiency
• Human capital deficiencies or lack of skills and abilities in workers prevents
them from finding good employment and thereby increasing their income.

19. Causes of poverty
• Social factors
• Joint family system
• Caste system
• Religious belief
• Faulty educational system
• Absence of training in home service
• Evil customs and traditions
• Insufficient provision of medical aid
• War

20. Causes of poverty: Social factors
• Joint family system
• Discourages young persons to go out and strive for new ventures due to
minimum security provided by the family.
• People become lethargic and develops the stay-at-home-habit
• Caste system
• In a hindrance to the development of new industries and it discouraged some
persons to leave their traditional occupation lest they may be out-casted.
• Religious belief
• Karma theory confined to ignorant and illiterate people.
• Some people believed as we could not change our fate, there was no use of
much effort and the results were preordained.

21. Causes of poverty: Social factors
• Faulty educational system
• Due to faulty educational system, the youths’ were not given proper
guidance/counselling in choosing their profession, leads to unemployment,
which generates poverty.
• Absence of training in home service
• Mismanagement of household is a serious cause of poverty everywhere.
• It is due to lack of sufficient training to women in home science, without such
training many middle class families remain poor.
• Evil customs and traditions
• Dowry system: it compels many families to remain poor in spite of all the
efforts of their men folk to earn.

22. Causes of poverty: Social factors
• Insufficient provision of medical aid
• Causes delayed cure, prolonged illness, permanent displacement, untimely
death.
• War
• It devastates prospering lands in rich countries, with heavy loss of poverty
and manpower.
• It upsets the balance of society by disrupting moral standard and socio-
economic system.
• Gives a serious blow to trade and commerce both national and international.
• Epidemic spreads, adds to the misery of the people.

23. Causes of poverty
• Demographic factors
• Unfavourable climate and weather
• Absence of natural resources
• Natural calamity

24. Causes of poverty: Demographic factors
• Unfavourable climate and weather
• Favourable climate and weather is very much necessary for work as well as
for production of agriculture and industries.
• Hence in the extremely cold climates the amount of work and production is
considerably lowered thus leading to poverty.
• Absence of natural resources
• Natural resources like fertile land, sufficient water, minerals and other natural
products.
• It deserts, high mountains and extremely cold countries remain poor.
• Natural calamity
• Absence of timely rains, excessive or deficient rains in India will lead to
poverty.

25. Causes of poverty
• Political factors
• Due to political subordination of the country, the British Government
exploited the situation for their interest.
• The government did not render any assistance to the cultivation to use new
techniques of agriculture.
• Biological factors
• Over population, occurrences of famine decreased, decrease in death rate
and increase in birth rate.

26. Rural poverty
• According to the 2011 census of India, 68.84% of Indians (around
833.1 million people) live in 640,867 different villages.
• The incidence of poverty is much higher in village.
• Agriculture is a source of livelihood for 70% of the population but
agriculture accounts for less than 20% of the national income.
• One of the reasons for this is the unequal distribution of land.
• Thus, any agenda for fighting poverty must address itself to the rural
sector.

28. Rural poverty
• Poverty can be measured by the poor’s access to piped water,
electricity, kutcha and pucca houses, and the public distribution
system, etc.
• A staggering 55% of the rural population of the country still live in
kutcha houses.
• Further, in most backward states (like West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa,
Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh), 15 to 19% rural homes have
electricity, 9 to 11% have pipe water and 11 to 16% have access to
public distribution system.

29. Causes of rural poverty
• Inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes.
• Low percentage of population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
• Non-availability of irrigational facilities and erratic rainfall in several stages.
• Low agricultural productivity resulting form dependence on traditional
methods of cultivation and inadequate knowledge of modern skills.
• Non-availability of electricity for agricultural as well as industrial use in most
of the villages.
• Spending a large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like
marriage, death feast, etc., and people being unwilling to break the
expensive customs.

30. Causes of rural poverty
• Poor quality of livestock.
• Imperfect and exploited credit market.
• Lack of link roads, communication facilities and markets.
• Low level of education. The general literacy level in the rural areas in the
country is low while for females it is very low.
• Absence of dynamic community leadership.
• Failure to seek women’s cooperation in developmental activities and
associating them with planned programmes.
• Inter-caste conflicts and rivalries.

31. Some effective strategies for alleviating rural
poverty
• Strengthening credit disbursing agencies.
• Providing cheap power supply for agricultural and industrial use.
• Activating cooperative societies for selling products of household
industries.
• Making allocations in poverty alleviation programmes (PAPs) flexible
and sanctioning special allocations to districts/blocks/villages showing
good results.
• Integrating varied PAPs in 1 or 2 schemes and making the availability
of benefits easier.

32. Some effective strategies for alleviating rural
poverty
• Developing resources by focusing on education, health and skill
programmes.
• Creating social awareness to arrest increasing debt growth among the
poor.
• Improving animal husbandry and developing dairy and poultry
farming.
• Activating panchayats to focus on adult education programme, road
construction and maintaining tree plantations.
• Activating more NGOs in role-play like digging of tanks, training youth,
imparting skills to women, creating social awareness among, etc.

33. Poverty Alleviation
Programme

34. Poverty elevation programmes
• After independence, the central and state government have adopted
the following important measures to reduce poverty:
• Five year plans
• Nationalisation
• 20-point programme
• Stage poverty alleviation programmes like IRDP, JRZ, TRYSEM, etc.

35. The Five Year Plans
• The planning commission set up in 1950 has been formulating Five
year Plans for India’s development taking an overall view of the needs
and resources of the country.
• The First plan was launched in April 1951 and the Third plan ended in
March 1966.
• After this, there were three one year plans from April, 1966 to March
1969.
• The Fourth Plan started in April 1969 and the Twelfth Plan ended in
March 2017.

36. Frist Five Year Plan (1951-56)
• The total planned budget of Rs.2069 crore (2378 crore later) was allocated
to seven broad areas:
• irrigation and energy (27.2%),
• Agriculture and community development (17.4%),
• Transport and communications (24%),
• Industry (8.4%),
• Social services (16.6%),
• Rehabilitation of landless formers (4.1%),
• and for other sectors and services (2.5%).
• The target growth rate was 2.1% annual gross domestic product (GDP)
growth; the achieved growth rate was 3.6% the net domestic product went
up by 15%.

37. Second Five Year Plan (1956-61)
• The Second Plan was particularly in the development of the public
sector and "rapid Industrialisation".
• The total amount allocated under the Second Five-Year Plan in India
was Rs.48 billion.
• This amount was allocated among various sectors:
• power and irrigation,
• social services,
• communications and transport, and
• miscellaneous.
• The plan attempted to determine the optimal allocation of
investment between productive sectors in order to maximise long-run
economic growth.

38. Third Five Year Plan (1961-66)
• The Third Five-year Plan, stressed agriculture and improvement in the
production of wheat, but the brief Sino-Indian War of 1962 exposed
weaknesses in the economy and shifted the focus towards the defence
industry and the Indian Army.
• In 1965–1966, India fought a War with Pakistan.
• There was also a severe drought in 1965.
• The war led to inflation and the priority was shifted to price
stabilisation.
• The construction of dams continued.
• Many cement and fertilizer plants were also built.

39. Conti..
• Many primary schools were started in rural areas.
• In an effort to bring democracy to the grass-root level, Panchayat
elections were started and the states were given more development
responsibilities.
• State electricity boards, state secondary education boards and state
road transport corporations were formed and local road building
became a state responsibility.
• The target growth rate was 5.6%, but the actual growth rate was
2.4%.

40. Fourth Five Year Plan (1969-1974)
• At this time Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister. The Indira Gandhi
government nationalised 14 major Indian banks and the Green
Revolution in India advanced agriculture.
• In addition, the situation in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was
becoming dire as the Indio-Pakistan War of 1971 and Bangladesh
Liberation War took funds earmarked for industrial development.
• India also performed the Smiling Buddha Underground nuclear test
(Pokhran-1) in Rajasthan on May 18, 1974, partially in response to the
United States deployment of the Seventh Fleet in the Bay of Bengal.
• The target growth rate was 5.6%, but the actual growth rate was
3.3%.

41. Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78)
• The Fifth Five-Year Plan laid stress on employment, poverty alleviation
(Garibi Hatao), and justice.
• The plan also focused on self-reliance in agricultural production and
defence.
• The 20-point programme was launched in 1975. It was followed from
1974 to 1979.
• The Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) was introduced in the first
year of the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974–78).
• In 1978 the newly elected Morarji Desai government rejected the plan.
• The target growth rate was 4.4% and the actual growth rate was 4.8%.

42. The Rolling Plan (1978-80)
• The Janata Party government rejected the Fifth Five-Year Plan and
introduced a new Sixth Five-Year Plan (1978–1980).
• This plan was again rejected by the Indian National Congress government in
1980 and a new Sixth Plan was made.
• The Rolling Plan consisted of three kinds of plans that were proposed.
• The First Plan was for the present year which comprised the annual budget.
• The Second was a plan for a fixed number of years, which may be 3, 4 or 5
years. Plan number two kept changing as per the requirements of the Indian
Economy.

43. Conti…
• The Third Plan was a perspective plan for long terms i.e. for 10, 15 or
20 years.
• Hence there was no fixation of dates for the commencement and
termination of the plan in the rolling plans.
• The main disadvantage of this plan was that if the targets were
revised each year, it became difficult to achieve the targets laid down
in the five-year period and it turned out to be a complex plan.
• Also, the frequent revisions resulted in the lack of stability in the
economy.

44. Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85)
• The Sixth Five-Year Plan marked the beginning of economic liberalisation.
• Price controls were eliminated and ration shops were closed. This led to an
increase in food prices and an increase in the cost of living. This was the
end of Nehruvian Socialism.
• The National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) was
established for development of rural areas on 12 July 1982 by
recommendation of the Shivaraman Committee.
• Family planning was also expanded in order to prevent over population.
• The Sixth Five-Year Plan was a great success to the Indian economy. The
target growth rate was 5.2% and the actual growth rate was 5.4%

45. Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90)
• The Seventh Five-Year Plan was led by the Congress Party with Rajiv
Gandhi as the prime minister.
• The plan laid stress on improving the productivity level of industries
by upgrading of technology.
• The main objectives of the Seventh Five-Year Plan were
• to establish growth in areas of increasing economic productivity,
• production of food grains, and
• generating employment through "Social Justice".
• The target growth rate was 5.0% and the actual growth rate was
6.01%. and the growth rate of per capita income was 3.7%.

46. The Annual Plan (1990-1992)
• The Eighth Plan could not take off in 1990 due to the fast changing
political situation at the centre and the years 1990–91 and 1991–92
were treated as Annual Plans.
• The Eighth Plan was finally formulated for the period 1992–1997.

47. Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97)
• P.V. Narasimha Rao was the ninth Prime Minister of the Republic of India and head of
Congress Party, and led one of the most important administrations in India's modern
history, overseeing a major economic transformation and several incidents affecting
national security.
• At that time Dr. Manmohan Singh (later Prime Minister of India) launched India's free
market reforms that brought the nearly bankrupt nation back from the edge.
• It was the beginning of liberalization, privatisation and globalization (LPG) in India.
• India became a member of the World Trade Organisation on 1 January 1995.
• The major objectives included,
• controlling population growth, poverty reduction, employment generation, strengthening the
infrastructure, institutional building, tourism management, human resource development,
involvement of Panchayat Raj, Nagar Palikas, NGOs, decentralisation and people's participation.
• The target growth rate was 5.6% and the actual growth rate was 6.8%.

48. Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-02)
• The Ninth Five-Year Plan came after 50 years of Indian Independence.
Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister of India during the Ninth
Five-Year Plan.
• The Ninth Five-Year Plan tried primarily to use the latent and
unexplored economic potential of the country to promote economic
and social growth.
• It offered strong support to the social spheres of the country in an
effort to achieve the complete elimination of poverty.
• The satisfactory implementation of the Eighth Five-Year Plan also
ensured the states' ability to proceed on the path of faster
development.

49. Conti..
• The Ninth Five-Year Plan also saw joint efforts from the public and the
private sectors in ensuring economic development of the country.
• In addition, the Ninth Five-Year Plan saw contributions towards
development from the general public as well as governmental
agencies in both the rural and urban areas of the country.
• New implementation measures in the form of Special Action Plans
(SAPs) were evolved during the Ninth Five-Year Plan to fulfil targets
within the stipulated time with adequate resources.
• The SAPs covered the areas of social infrastructure, agriculture,
information technology and Water policy.

50. Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07)
• The main objectives of the Tenth Five-Year Plan:
• Attain 8% GDP growth per year.
• Reduction of Poverty rate by 5% by 2007.
• Providing gainful and high-quality employment at least to the addition to the labour force.
• Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50% by 2007.
• 20-point program was introduced.
• Target growth: 8.1% – growth achieved: 7.7%.
• The Tenth Plan was expected to follow a regional approach rather than sectoral approach to bring
down regional inequalities.
• Expenditure of ₹43,825 crore (US$6.1 billion) for tenth five years.
• Out of total plan outlay, ₹921,291 crore (US$130 billion) (57.9%) was for central
government and ₹691,009 crore (US$96 billion) (42.1%) was for states and union
territories.

51. Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12)
• It was in the period of Manmohan Singh as a prime minister.
• It aimed to increase the enrolment in higher education of 18-23 years of age group by 2011-12.
• It focused on distant education, convergence of formal, non-formal, distant and IT education
institutions.
• Rapid and inclusive growth (poverty reduction).
• Emphasis on social sector and delivery of service therein.
• Empowerment through education and skill development.
• Reduction of gender inequality.
• Environmental sustainability.
• To increase the growth rate in agriculture, industry and services to 4%, 10% and 9% respectively.
• Reduce total fertility rate to 2.1.
• Provide clean drinking water for all by 2009.
• Increase agriculture growth to 4%.

52. Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17)
• The Twelfth Five-Year Plan of the Government of India has been decided to
achieve a growth rate of 8.2% but the National Development Council (NDC)
on 27 December 2012 approved a growth rate of 8% for the Twelfth Five-
Year Plan.
• The objectives of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan were:
• To create 50 million new work opportunities in the non farm sector.
• To remove gender and social gap in school enrolment.
• To enhance access to higher education.
• To reduce malnutrition among children aged 0-3 years.
• To provide electricity to all villages.
• To ensure that 50% of the rural population have accesses to proper drinking water.
• To increase green cover by 1 million hectare every year.
• To provide access to banking services to 90% of households.

53. Conti..
• There is no 13th Five Year plan for India.
• Five Year Plan implemented by Nehru Govt for bringing a social and
economic development in country put to end by Modi Led Govt with the
introduction of Niti Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India )
which replaced Planning Commission.
• The new plan which is a vision document is accompanied by shorter sub-
plans – a seven-year strategy for 2017-24, and a three-year 'Action Agenda'
from 2017-18 to 2019-20. No less than 300 specific action points covering a
wide range of sectors have been drawn up as part of the 15-year vision.
• The three-year agenda is further divided into seven parts, with a number of
specific action points for each part to boost economic growth.

54. The NITI Aayog
• From 1947 to 2017, the Indian economy was premised on the
concept of planning.
• This was carried through the Five-Year Plans, developed, executed,
and monitored by the Planning Commission (1951-2014) and the NITI
Aayog (2015-2017).
• With the prime minister as the ex-officio chairman, the commission
has a nominated deputy chairman, who holds the rank of a cabinet
Minister.
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the last deputy chairman of the
commission (resigned on 26 May 2014).

55. Conti..
• The Twelfth Plan completed its term in March 2017.
• Revised versions of the formula have been used since then to
determine the allocation of central assistance for state plans.
• The new government led by Narendra Modi, elected in 2014, has
announced the dissolution of the Planning Commission, and its
replacement by a think tank called the NITI Aayog (an acronym for
National Institution for Transforming India).

56. Aims of the Five Year Plans
• Overall economic growth in terms of generating productive assets and skills as well
as income for the poor.
• Needed resources and the capabilities for running programmes.
• Demand for goods and services produced by the poorer household enterprises
significantly in response to the overall increase in incomes in the country so that
the visibility of household enterprises depends critically on the sustained increase
in national income.
• To ensure the pattern of overall economic growth itself to generate adequate
income for poorer sections through its greater impact on employment and on the
development of the less developed regions.
• Social transformation involving structural changes, educational development,
growth in awareness and change in outlook, motivation and attitudes, providing
health for the people.

57. Nationalisation
• The policy of nationalisation was adopted in 1969 when 14 banks was
nationalised.
• This was followed by the nationalisation of coal mines in 1972 and the
government’s taking over the control of a big private iron and steel
company and a wholesale business in foodgrains.
• The nationalisation aimed at granting credit to weaker sections.
• It is true that the credit share of agriculture, small-scale industry,
professionals and transport operators has risen sharply from 14% in
1969 to nearly 33% in 1980 and 46% in 1995, and the banks have
helped modernize the village economy.

58. 20-Point Programme
• Indira Gandhi propounded this programmes in July, 1975 for reducing
poverty and economic exploitation, and for the upliftment of the
weaker sections of the society.
• The five important goals of this programme were:
• Controlling inflation
• Giving incentive to production
• Welfare of the rural population
• Lending help to the urban middle classes
• Controlling economic and social crimes

59. The programmes included in the 20-Point Programme were:
1. Increase in irrigational facilities
2. Increase in production programmes for rural employment
3. Distribution of surplus land
4. Minimum wages to landless labourers
5. Rehabilitation of bonded labour
6. Development of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
7. Growth of housing facilities
8. Increasing power production
9. Family planning
10. Tree plantations
11. Extension of primary health facilities
12. Programmes for the welfare of women and children
13. Increase in primary education
14. Strengthening of the distribution system
15. Simplification of industrial policies
16. Control of black money
17. Betterment of the dirking water facilities
18. Developing internal resources, etc.,
• The programme was discontinued with the change of government when the Janatha Party
became the ruling at the Centre.

60. Socio-Economic Programmes (1958)
• To provide work and wages to the economically backward, physically
handicapped and socially maladjusted families.
• It proved financial assistance to voluntary bodies that want to
organise income-generating activities.
• Voluntary bodes will give grants and loans up to Rs.20,000/- to 3 lakhs
for setting up production units of small industries, dairies, animal
husbandry projects, self-employment units like vegetable vending,
supply of sewing machines, assistance to handlooms, etc.,

61. Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP – 1972-73)
• The midterm appraisal of the fourth plan, the rural works
programmes was re-designated as the ‘Drought Prone Area
Programme’.
• In this orientation is towards area development.
• Criteria to select the area is: Low extend of irrigated areas, low level
of rainfall, erratic distribution of rainfall, and high periodicity of
drought, etc. it is entrusted to the DRDA.
• Objectives of DPAP are:
• Reducing the severity of the impact of drought
• Stabilizing the income of the people particularly the weaker sections of
society
• Restoration of ecological balance

62. National Rural Employment Programme
(NREP – 1st April, 1977)
• The NREP was planned for creating additional employment
opportunities in the rural areas with the help of surplus woodgrains.
• Initially this programme was called Food for Work Programme (FWP).
• Under this scheme, millions of man-days of employment were
created every year by utilizing lakhs of tonnes of food grains.
• The works undertaken were flood protection, maintenance of existing
roads, construction of new link roads improvement of irrigation
facilities, construction of Panchayat ghars, school buildings, medical
and health centres and improvement of sanitation conditions in the
rural areas.

63. Training of Rural Youth of Self-Employment
(TRYSEM – 15th Aug, 1979)
• The equip the rural youth in 18-35 years of age group, who are below the poverty
line with necessary skills and technology to enable them to seek self
employment.
• Wage employment: special provisions in the scheme are:
• 50% of the trained youths should be from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
• 40% of youth trained should be women.
• In case of widows, 5 years upper age limit will be relaxed, 3% for physically handicapped.
• Training will be conducted in: Polytechnics, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Nehru Yuvak Kendras,
Khadi and Village industries boards, state institute of rural development, extension training
centre, etc.
• Duration of training is flexible
• Every TRYSEM trainee is potential IRDP beneficiary
• Trainees will receive stipends during their training
• Tool kits at free of cost is supplied

64. Integrated Rural Development Programme
(IRDP – 2nd Oct, 1980)
• Its objectives is to enable selected families to cross the poverty line by
taking up self-employment ventures in a variety of activities like
agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry in the primary sector;
weaving and handicrafts in the secondary sector; and service and business
activities in the tertiary sector.
• The aim of the IRDP is to see that a minimum stipulated number of families
are enabled to cross the poverty line within a given investment and in a
given time-frame.
• The IRDP was launched by the Centre in 20 selected districts, but from Oct,
1982 it was extended to all the districts in the country.
• The ministry of rural development, Government of India is responsible for
the release of central share of funds, policy formulation, overall guidance,
monitoring and evaluation of the programme.

65. Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS 1981)
• To generate employment among villagers and create assets in the
rural areas.
• Villages are selected from dry and drought prone areas where the
agriculture labourers are without any job due to failure in rainfall.

66. Development of Women and Children in Rural
Areas (DWCRA – 1982-83)
• It is sub-scheme of IRDP. As a pilot in 1982 it has started in 50 districts, later
in 1994-95 extended to all districts of the country.
• Objectives of DWCRA are:
• To improve the living conditions, socio and economic status of women and children.
• Provision of opportunities for self-employment and access to basic social services
• To provide income generating skills and activities for poor women
• To encourage the habit of thrift and credit among women to make them self-reliant
• To create employment opportunities for rural women, who are below poverty line.
• To improve the access of rural women to health, education, safe drinking water,
sanitation and nutrition.
• To enhance production among rural poor.

67. Employment and Income Generating Training Cum
Employment Cum Production Units (1982-83)
• Trains the people in trades, electronics, printing, binding, watch
manufacturing, handlooms, computer programming etc., for the
weaker section of the society and provide them employment on a
sustained basis.
• It is carried out through public sector undertaking / corporations /
voluntary organisations.
• Norwegian agency for international development will assist the
activities like stipend for trainees Rs. 250/- per month, cost of
equipment, salary of instructors, rent of the building.

68. Self Employment to Educated Unemployment
Youth (SEEUY, 1983-84)
• Objective
• To provide opportunities of employment and income through creating
productive assets to educated unemployed youth
• To encourage educated unemployed youth to undertake self-employment
ventures in industry, service, business by providing package of financial
assistance.
• Target group
• Youth who studies matriculation and above
• 18-35 years of age
• Family annual income should not be more than Rs.15,000
• Women and technically trained persons are given due consideration.

69. Self Employment Programme for Urban Poor
(SEPUP, 1986)
• To provide self-employment to the urban poor, living in metropolitan
/ urban / semi-urban centres covering 10,000 people.
• Assistance will be given in the form of bank credit and subsidiaries for
families below the subsistence level.
• It promotes activities like bookbinding, shoe/cycle/stove/pressure
cooker repairing, paper /polythene bag vendors, new paper shops,
tailoring, ready-made garments sops.
• Composite loan of Rs.5,000/- is sanctioned.

70. Support to Training Cum Employment
Programmes for Women (STEP, 1986)
• To improve and strengthen the component of women in the sectors
of agriculture, animal husbandry, dairying, fisheries, handlooms,
handicrafts, Khadi, village industries and sericulture.
• Women will be given special training on health, literacy.
• Training will be given in new technical skills, management and basic
accounting.
• 90% of assistance will be given by the implementing agency for the
project.

71. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY, 1989)
• Generate additional employment for the unemployed and under
employed men and women in the rural areas.
• Strengthens rural economic infrastructure by sustaining employment.
• The expenditure is shared by centre and state in 80:20 ratio.
• Work preferably will be taken up during the lean agriculture season
and continued in busy agricultural period also.
• DRDA / Zila Parishad may spend maximum of Rs. 50,000/- on training
of officials involved in implementation of JRY at district / block /
village panchayat level.
• Both the Rural Wage Employment Programme (i.e. REP and RLEGP)
were merged in tis scheme.

72. Rural Landless Employment Guarantee
Programme (RLEGP)
• It aimed to providing supplemental employment to the poor on public
works at a very low wage o Rs.3 per day.
• Maharastra was one state which had used the Employment
Guarantee Scheme (EGS) for the unemployed in rural areas by levying
EGS surcharge or collections of land revenue, sales tax, motor vehicles
tax, irrigated holdings, and on professionals.
• The amounts so collected, with matching contributions from the state
government, were credited to an EGS fund for taking up employment
works.
• This programme too has now been merged (along with NEP) into the
JRY

73. Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS, 1993)
• To provide assured gainful employment during the lean agriculture
seasons of 100 days of unskilled manual work to the rural poor, who
are in need of employment and seeking it.
• To create economic infrastructure and community assets for
sustained employment and development.
• Beneficiaries are 18-60 years of age, a maximum of 2 adults per family
are provided employment under the scheme.

74. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
(SGSY, 1999)
• Holistic programme covering all aspects of self-employment, e.g:
Organisation of the poor women into self-help groups, training credit
technology, infrastructure, and marketing.
• Funded by centre and state with a ratio of 75:25.
• To bring every assisted family above the poverty line within 3 years
through provision of micro-enterprise.
• The beneficiaries are known as ‘Swarozgaris’.
• To bring every assisted family above the poverty line in 3 years.

75. Antyodaya Programme
• ‘Antyodaya’ means development (udaya) of the people at the bottom
level (ant), that is, the poorest of the poor.
• This programme was initiated by the Government of Rajasthan on
October 2, 1977 for special assistance to the people below the
poverty line.
• The idea was to select 5 of the poorest families from each village
every year and to help them in their economic betterment.
• Under this scheme, help was given in the form of allotting land for
cultivation, monthly pension, bank loan or help in getting
employment.

76. Garibi Hatao and Bekari Hatao Programmes
• The Garibi Hatao slogan was given by Indira Gandhi in March 1971 at
he time of national elections while the Bekari Hatao slogan was given
by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) at its annual session in
April 1988.

77. Self Help Groups (SHGs)
• ‘All for all’ is the basic concept.
• Mainly concerned with poor (weaker sections concerning to women)
and it is for the people, by the people and of the people.
• It is working under micro level, and generates self-confidence, self-
security, self-reliance and social defence.
• It encourages the women volunteers to organise themselves n a
group for eradication of poverty of its members.
• Eligible women can apply for a loan to start income generating
activities like dairy forming, agriculture, sericulture, poultry, goat and
sheep rearing.

78. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana(JGSY)
• It is the restructured, streamlined and comprehensive version of the Jawahar
Rozgar Yojana (JRY).
• It was started on 1 April 1999. The main aim of this programme was development
of rural areas.
• Infrastructure like roads to connect the village to different areas, which made the
village more accessible and also other social, educational (schools) and
infrastructure like hospitals.
• Its secondary objective was to give out sustained wage employment. This was
only given to BPL (below the poverty line) families and fund was to be spent for
individual beneficiary schemes for SCs and STs and 3% for the establishment of
barrier free infrastructure for the disabled people.
• The village panchayats were one of the main governing body of this programme.
₹1841.80 crore was used and they had a target of 8.57 lakh works. 5.07 lakh
works were completed during 1999-2000.

79. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
2005
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA , later renamed as the
"Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act", MGNREGA.
• It aims to enhance livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days
of wage employment in a financial year to every household whose adult
members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
• The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao, it was finally accepted
in the parliament and commenced implementation in 625 districts of India.
• Based on this pilot experience, NREGA was scoped up to cover all the districts of
India from 1 April 2008. The statute is hailed by the government as "the largest
and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world".
• In its World Development Report 2014, the World Bank termed it a "stellar
example of rural development".

80. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act
• The MGNREGA was initiated with the objective of "enhancing
livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of
guaranteed wage employment in a financial year, to every household
whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work".
• Another aim of MGNREGA is to create durable assets (such as roads,
canals, ponds and wells). Employment is to be provided within 5 km
of an applicant's residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.
• If work is not provided within 15 days of applying, applicants are
entitled to an unemployment allowance. Thus, employment under
MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.

81. National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS)
• This scheme came into effect on 15 August 1995.
• The scheme provides pension to old people who were above the age of 65
(now 60) who could not find for themselves and did not have any means of
subsistence.
• The pension that was given was ₹200 a month. This pension is given by the
central government. The job of implementation of this scheme in states
and union territories is given to panchayats and municipalities.
• The states contribution may vary depending on the state. The amount of
old age pension is ₹200 per month for applicants aged 60–79.
• For applicants aged above 80 years, the amount has been revised to ₹500 a
month according to the 2011–2012 Budget.It is a successful venture.

82. National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS)
• This scheme was started in August 1995 .
• This scheme is sponsored by the state government.
• It was transferred to the state sector scheme after 2002-03. It is
under the community and rural department.
• This scheme provides a sum of ₹20,000 to a person of a family who
becomes the head of the family after the death of its primary
breadwinner.
• The breadwinner is defined as a person who is above 18 who earns
the most for the family and on whose earnings the family survives.

83. National Maternity Benefit Scheme
• This scheme provides a sum of ₹6000 to a pregnant mother in three
installments.
• The women have to be older than 19 years of age. It is given normally 12–
8 weeks before the birth and in case of the death of the child the women
can still avail it.
• The NMBS is implemented by states and union territories with the help of
panchayats and municipalities.
• During 1999–2000 the total allocation of funds for this scheme was
767.05 crores and the amount used was ₹4444.13 crore.
• It is for families below the poverty line. The scheme was updated in 2005-
06 into Janani Suraksha Yojana with ₹1400 for every institutional birth.

84. Annapurna
• This scheme was started by the government in 1999–2000 to provide
food to senior citizens who cannot take care of themselves and are
not under the National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), and who
have no one to take care of them in their village.
• This scheme would provide 10 kg of free food grains a month for the
eligible senior citizens.
• The allocation for this scheme in 2000-2001 was ₹100 crore.
• They mostly target groups of 'poorest of the poor' and 'indigent
senior citizens'.

85. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana
• This scheme aimed at creating housing for everyone. It was initiated in
1985.
• It aimed at creating 20 lakh housing units out of which 13 lakhs were in
rural area.
• This scheme also would give out loans to people at subsidized rates to
make houses.
• It was started in 1999–2000. In 1999–2000, ₹1438.39 crore was used for
this scheme and about 7.98 lakh units were built.
• In 2000-01 a central outlay of ₹1710.00 crores was provided for this
scheme. It improved the standard of living of rural areas: health, primary
education, drinking water, housing, roads.

86. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship scheme
of the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
• The objective of this Skill Certification Scheme is to enable a large
number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that
will help them in securing a better livelihood.
• Individuals with prior learning experience or skills will also be
assessed and certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

87. Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY)
• Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) is a scheme launched by the
Hon’ble Prime Minister on April 8, 2015 for providing loans upto 10 lakh to
the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
• These loans are classified as MUDRA loans under PMMY.
• These loans are given by Commercial Banks, RRBs, Small Finance Banks,
Cooperative Banks, MFIs and NBFCs.
• The borrower can approach any of the lending institutions mentioned above
or can apply online through this portal.
• Under the aegis of PMMY, MUDRA has created three products namely
'Shishu', 'Kishore' and 'Tarun' to signify the stage of growth / development
and funding needs of the beneficiary micro unit / entrepreneur and also
provide a reference point for the next phase of graduation / growth.

88. Thank you
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_central_government_schemes_in_India
https://www.ges2017.org/govt-of-india-support-for-entrepreneurs/