Themes

Poverty & livelihoods

Even as world continues to record impressive growth rates and with 1.28 billion people still living below $1.25 a day (2008), poverty eradication is one of the most important Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations [World Bank]. Being the foremost MDG, it has taken large scale effort and resources nationally and internationally, but a lot is desired to be achieved before the 2015 deadline. As poverty has different facets ranging from lack of means to purchase goods and services, inadequate access to basic goods such as food and water to poor housing and unhealthy living conditions, poverty eradication requires efforts on several fronts.

Amelioration of poverty not just requires rolling out well designed anti-poverty programmes on a country-wide basis but also needs a cohesive approach to livelihood development. This may require appropriate governance of resources, empowerment of common mass through use of technology and more importantly by ensuring their participation in the development process. 

The cohesive approach would mean engagement of government, civil society and think tanks in planning and management of large scale programmes. With the ‘Food for Work’ concept becoming unviable in India, efforts focusing on provisioning access to basic amenities and financial inclusion are the need of the hour, where each entity needs to play a greater role. The challenge of ensuring access to basic amenities has been catered to a great extent, but much is desired to be done before we call it as the only vital instrument to eradicate poverty in India or elsewhere. It is, therefore, imperative that an effective massive country-wide human resource development is crucial that would generate awareness, motivation and participation to make such poverty eradication initiatives more sustainable