Poverty reduction needs ample will and innovative approach

P Muralidhar Rao

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to express pleasure and honour for having been provided an opportunity to attend and address this ICAPP Conference on Poverty Alleviation in Kunming- the capital of Yunnan Province of china. I wish to congratulate Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese Government for hosting such an important meeting on a very crucial subject confronting Asia.

The leadership of my Party, my country and its leadership accords top priority to poverty alleviation. Various Schemes and projects including various forms of subsidies are provided to combat this challenge. My country is a democracy with universal adult franchise and a rainbow of political parties- which has helped us in calibrating the opening of our economy and also has provided with scope to come up with various innovative schemes and campaigns in the form of state interventions so as to have the poverty reduced progressively.
How ever, this challenge (poverty) still exists in its worst form. India still has more than 456 million people (41.6 % of the total population) living below poverty at or below $1.25 per day. A lot more needs to be done in this regard.

At the global level, there is a clear shift of growth towards Asia which is visible and perceptible. Unwavering slant is in favor of Asia. Long dark times of dependence and diffidence are noticeably over. World growth dominated by the west is now becoming more balanced.

If this situation is carefully handled and the socio -economic policies are creatively crafted on the basis of balanced vision and maturity – the 21st century may become Asia’s century in terms of growth and development. 

Poverty Definition Debate

There is a debate about the definition of poverty going on various levels. Different agencies and individuals have tried to define poverty in their own ways. And this makes it difficult to gauge the extent or even the approximate figure. Periodic changes in the definition of the poverty line makes the issue even more complicated. It is obvious that in the absence of a uniform statistical measure of poverty, alleviation programmes cannot be meaningful.

It is a healthy sign that there is an intense debate in our country to have a wider definition. I don’t consider it as a conflicting effort but in my opinion its aim is to enlarge the definition to grasp the changing ground realities. With the opening of our economy the level of ambition and also the levels of people’s aspirations have grown multifold. So the urge to include certain basic needs of the people suffering from poverty in to the frame work seems to be logical. A consensus building exercise for a near uniform approach to poverty estimation may be useful.

There is another aspect that needs to be kept in mind. And that is Asia is young people’s continent. Number of youth in the population of Asia is much more than compared to any other continent. This underlines the need to have more avenues and opportunities for these young citizen’s to unleash their youth power. This also means more; food, resources, energy and consumable items are required. In India population below 35 years of age constitutes more than 70% of Indian population. Coupled with young population, another unique characteristic of Asia in general is existence of family as a unit. We largely are family centric people. And family centric societies world over are saving societies. Asia is a saving continent with abundant social capital & trust- critical for development. It is with this background that we are discussing poverty alleviation. 

The Suresh Tendulkar committee of the Planning Commission of India has reviewed the present methodology for measuring poverty and has suggested major changes for the future.. Multi dimensional poverty index (MPI), the new measure of global poverty developed by Oxford poverty and Human Development Initiative with UNDP support has also discussed the same. These efforts have to be welcomed and pursued to the logical end.

Asian Political leadership should take initiative to come with enlarged and more appropriate definition of poverty suitable to our realities. Similarly we will have to understand the meaning of growth in our context. Western model of growth that leads to inequality and dislocation will have to be replaced by a bi-podal model that includes agriculture and informal sector into growth engine so as to enhance and improve the capacity to reduce the poverty by creating sustainable employment.

Presently in India for example If we look into the composition of growth we find that though India experienced a very fast growth but this was confined to non agriculture sector and informal sector. They have been laggards. The growth is mainly, driven by services sector. Informal or unorganized sector contributes 92% of our workforce while only 8% are in organized sector. Hence, it is important to focus on skill development and productivity of this vast majority of people to improve their standard of living. Education is also an area that needs our focused attention. Primary education and its universalisation is high on our agenda, but dropouts are still a challenge. Gross enrollment at around 11% in 2004-05 was below global average of 23.2%.

Health sector has its own challenges. Children with mal nutrition is a major concern facing India. A large number of children don’t have access to nutritious food and immunization. Women are also worst sufferers on this count.

Unshackling the informal Sector

Informal sector has tremendous potential that can be unleashed by providing micro-credits. Small credits without collaterals can change the destiny of our huge population. The experience in this regard in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India is exemplary. This has established beyond doubt that they too are (1) efficient in fact more efficient at times, and (2) they are more trust worthy.

It is up to the political leadership with adequate will and innovative approach in designing the products and policy frame work suitable to the needs of this section of society to really make on impact on poverty reduction front.

Speculative Trends in the present Growth Model

While working for growth we have to be aware of speculative capital propelled growth. In today’s world speculation has created fluctuations that at times are shocking. These shocks have created hardships for the common man and poor people. This speculative trading has led us to a position where trade in goods is very less as compared to trade in capital. This has severe consequences for our physical resources and the poor. To meet this challenge we have to evolve a consensual regulatory approach.

The same spirit should also reflect while handling the trade – negotiations at the international level which have serious implication for farmers and other people in conventional occupations – in their livelihood and life style as well.

Last not least is the challenge of Terrorism. It threatens the stability and hence the poor of Asia has a very big stake in peace and stability. we just can’t ignore it.

Before I finish, let me convey the appreciation and best wishes from the highest leadership of my party -Sh.Nitin. Gadkari, national President, Sh. L.K. Advani, Chairman, Parliamentry Party, Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Leader of Opposition and Sh. Arun Jaitley, Leader of Opposition. Rajya Sabha to the organisers-ICAPP, Hosts - CPC (International Department) and the Government of China for successfully organising this event on very important subject.

Our leadership is also hopeful, this endeavor would help in evolving the consensus and also a common strategy to realise the dream of poverty alleviation. Lastly, I personally thank one and all.


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