SDG 1: No Poverty

National Overview

With 2015 marking the transition from the Millennium to the Sustainable Development Goals,
the international community can celebrate many development successes since 2000. India has
not only committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it was a leading
proponent of the first goal that addresses the issue of poverty. This goal commits the signatories
to eliminating poverty according to the common international poverty line of $1.90 per person
per day and cutting it in half “according to national definitions”. 1 Its manifestations include
hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education and other basic services, social
discrimination and exclusion as well as the lack of participation in decision-making and hence
the goal 1 of sustainable development goals is related to many others SDGs. The philosophy of
‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ forms the corner stone of the current model of governance in India.
This is in line with the basic principle of agenda 2030- “Leaving no one behind”.

Global reduction in extreme poverty was driven mainly by Asia – notably China and India.
Between 2005-06 and 2015-16, the incidence of multidimensional poverty in India was almost
halved, climbing down to 27.5 percent from 54.7 percent as per the 2018 global
Multidimensional Poverty Index report.2

It is widely recognized that the process of growth has led to significant improvement in the living
conditions of poor. Many national plans now have explicit quantitative targets for reduction in
poverty and related issues such as creation of employment and provision of basic needs. In a
rapidly changing global environment, developing countries would face greater challenges in their
development journey. These achievements have been made possible through the implementation
of nationwide multidimensional poverty eradication programmes. India’s efforts to eradicate
poverty have always emphasized on education and skills development, income generation,
employment creation and provision of access to basic needs such as electricity, clean water,
transportation and housing, as well as social safety nets.

The Government has adopted policies and programmes to address multidimensional nature of
poverty in the country. These include fostering accelerated, inclusive and resilient growth,
increasing coverage and effectiveness of social protection, achieving gender parity, increasing
the size, reach, and diversity microcredit programmes, promoting financial inclusion, and
providing stable macroeconomic environment

1
http://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-1/
2
http://in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-1/
For decades, India remained stubbornly in the top spot, the place with the most people living in
extreme poverty, a reflection of its huge population and its enduring struggle against poverty.
However recent studies suggest that over 270 million people in India moved out of poverty in the
decade since 2005-06 and the poverty rate in the country nearly halved over the 10-year period.3
The growth of cities, has been beneficial for overall poverty reduction in India. Urban growth
has been responsible for about 80 per cent of the total fall in poverty. The poor living in rural
areas have gained more from urban growth than from rural growth.4

India is committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a universal, global approach
to reduce poverty, promote sustainable development and ensure the peace and prosperity of
people across the world. In doing so, India follows a well-rounded and holistic anti-poverty
strategy of sustained rapid growth. Conceptually, sustained rapid growth works through two
channels to rapidly reduce poverty. First, it creates well-paid jobs and raises real wages. Second,
rapid growth leads to growth in government revenues. In turn, enhanced revenues allow the
expansion of social expenditures at faster pace. Growth is not the sole objective of economic
policy. It is necessary to ensure that the benefits of growth accrue to all sections of the society.

The policy initiatives/schemes taken up by the government are either universal or targeted. For
programs that are universal, identification of the poor is not required. The programme is
available to all. For example, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MNREGA) scheme guarantees hundred days of employment per year to one adult in every rural
household. This benefit is available to all rural households and therefore requires no information
on poverty. In case of the second category of programs that are not universal and are targeted at
the poor, official poverty estimates can be used to both compute the total expenditure required
and to allocate the latter among states.5

Schemes, Policies and Programmes

1) Wage employment programmes 2) Self-employment programmes 3) Food security

programmes 4) Social security programmes 5) Urban poverty alleviation programmes.
 MGNREGA
MGNREGA is the world’s largest employment generating scheme which targets
to benefit 2.55 crore household in 2019-2020 guaranteeing 100 days of unskilled
manual work to all rural households in India. Total number of individuals that

3
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/over-10-years-poverty-rate-in-india-reduced-to-half-un-report-1919756
4
https://in.one.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UNSDF_Print-Revised-To-be-Approved-low-res.pdf
5
https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/OccasionalPaper_No2_Poverty.pdf
 worked under MGNREGA in 2017-18 accounts to 7.59 crore. Total expenditure
of 64280 crore was allocated to MGNREGA.6
 Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana- Gramin
PMAY-G aims at providing a pucca house, with basic amenities, to all houseless
householder and those households living in kutcha and dilapidated house, by
2022. The immediate the objective is to cover 1.00 crore household living in
kutcha house/dilapidated house in three years from 2016-17 to 2018- 19.7 The
launch of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Gramin (PMAY-G) offers significant
opportunity to improve the coverage and quality of housing for the poor and to
introduce cost-effective and environmentally-friendly building technologies and
materials. Through subsidies for new construction and renovation, the
government aims to build 10 million houses for the poor by 2019 and 20 million
more by 2022. In addition to financial resources, beneficiaries and builders alike
need access to quality building materials, technical advice, and climate-friendly
and disaster-resilient designs. Decentralised production and supply can spur the
growth of community-owned enterprises. UN engagement will enable India to
showcase innovations in the world’s largest housing programme for the poor
based on local technologies and building that are climate-friendly and resilient.
Particular focus will be on the needs of vulnerable groups including female-
headed households and migrants.
 Mission Antyodaya
The primary objective of this programme is to Survey and Collect the Village
Infrastructure Data for all the Villages in the GP. Mission Antyodaya is a
convergence framework for measurable effective outcomes on parameters that
transform lives and livelihoods. Mission Mode Project envisaged by the Ministry
of Rural Development. Comprehensive and integrated system for enhancing the
efficiency and effectiveness at Gram Panchayat Level.8
 Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana,
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is a National Mission on Financial Inclusion
which has an integrated approach to bring about comprehensive financial
inclusion and provide banking services to all households in the country. The
scheme ensures access to a range of financial services like availability of basic
savings bank account, access to need based credit, remittances facility, insurance
and pension. As on 31st January 2015, 12.5 crore bank accounts were opened and
11.07 crore rupay debit cards were issued.9
 National Social Assistance Programmes
The programme introduced a National Policy for Social Assistance for the poor
and aims at ensuring minimum national standard for social assistance in addition
to the benefits that states are currently providing or might provide in future.
NSAP at present, comprises of Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme
(IGNOAPS), Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme (IGNWPS), Indira

6
https://www.nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx
7
https://pmayg.nic.in/netiay/about-us.aspx
8
https://missionantyodaya.nic.in/preloginAboutMA.html
9
https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/major_initiatives/pradhan-mantri-jan-dhan-yojana/
 Gandhi National Disability Pension Scheme (IGNDPS), National Family Benefit
Scheme (NFBS) and Annapurna. 10
 Gram Swaraj Abhiyan
The campaign, undertaken under the name of “Sabka Sath, Sabka Gaon, Sabka
Vikas”, is to promote social harmony, spread awareness about pro-poor initiatives
of government, reach out to poor households to enroll them as also to obtain their
feedback on various welfare programmes. Govt. of India has extended it in 117
Aspirational Districts identified by the NITI Aayog. During this abhiyan,
saturation of eligible households/persons would be made under seven flagship
pro-poor programmes namely, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Saubhagya, Ujala
scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima
Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Mission Indradhanush. In
addition, 5 priority are related activities under Education, Health, Nutrition, Skills
and Agriculture also been identified as per district plan.11
 Saubhagya,
Under Saubhagya free electricity connections to all households (both APL and
poor families) in rural areas and poor families in urban areas will be provided. Of
the total households, 99.99% of the households have been electrified and only
18734 households are yet to be electrified.12
 Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana,
Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) aims to safeguard the health of
women & children by providing them with a clean cooking fuel – LPG, so that
they don’t have to compromise their health in smoky kitchens or wander in
unsafe areas collecting firewood. coverage of LPG connections as a result of
PMUY has jumped from 55% in 2004 to 90% now. By January 2019, 64 million
LPG connections have been provided under the Ujjwala scheme.13
 Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile trinity- for financial inclusion
 Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY)
 National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS)
 National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS)
 National Maternity Benefit Scheme
 Annapurna
 Integrated Rural Development Program(IRDP)
 Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana
 Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana of Pradhan Mantri
 Gram Panchayat Development Plan Campaign (Sabki Yojana Sabka Vikas)
 Gram Swaraj Abhiyan
 Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana,
 Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and
 Mission Indradhanush.
 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana

10
http://nsap.nic.in/
11
http://gsa.nic.in/Home.aspx
12
https://saubhagya.gov.in/
13
http://www.pmujjwalayojana.com/about.html
  National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013
 Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation (AMRUT),
 Smart Cities Mission
 Digital India

Challenges

Availability of funds for any government’s initiative alone is not a sufficient condition
for tackling the problems of poverty and backwardness. The determining factor seems to
be the capability of the funding Governments or Ministries to formulate viable schemes,
and the delivery system to optimally utilise funds and achieve sustainable growth.

1.) Most of the poor live in natural resources-dense areas, most likely in forest areas.
70% of India’s poor live in rural areas and so their dependence on natural resources is
high.14 These people do not have the capacity to absorb unforeseen natural shocks
like disasters or personal emergencies like health issues. With each disaster, or with
each shock that impacts these factors, a poor persons takes the first and fast step
towards chronic poverty. Thus the efforts to treat poverty are successful in raising the
economic status of these people temporarily but those cannot sustain them to a period
where people escape the poverty trap. Economic shocks, food insecurity and climate
change threaten to rob them of their hard-won gains and force them back into
poverty.

2.) Implementation Challenge: The commitment of government of India to eradicate

poverty can be realized only if actions on the national levels are complimented by
initiatives of State governments/Union Territories and that by the local authorities.
There are leakages at various points and at the various stages of any government’s
scheme. For instance, there are leakages at various points in the Public Distribution
System: : in storage, along the distribution chain as grain makes its way down to the
PDS shop, and through ghost and multiple ration cards. There are also times when
part of the grain sits in storage for two or more years and becomes unfit for human
consumption. Adding to this, the MGNREGA scheme of the government of India also
faces some implementation challenges. As against the guarantee of 100 days of wage
employment to one person in each household annually, MGNREGA’s average
achievement has been less than 50 days except in 2009-10 when it touched about 54

14
https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/70-indians-live-in-rural-areas-census-
111071500171_1.html
 days. The average days of work for a household in 2007-08 were 42, touching 46 in
2012-13 and 2013-14 but dropped to 40.02 in 2014-2015.15

3.) Regional Disparities: The commitment of government of india to eradicate poverty

can be realized only if actions on the national levels are complimented by initiatives
of State governments/Union Territories. The states of India reflect enormous socio-
economic disparities. Much of India’s poverty is concentrated in rural areas and in
low-income states. The seven states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh account for 62 percent of people living
in poverty in India. Low-income states as a group, excepting Rajasthan, have a
poverty rate that is twice that of the rest of the country. These states have less industry
and people are largely residing in rural areas. The difference between the states/UTs
with highest proportion of people living below poverty line and states/UTs with the
lowest proportion of people living below poverty line is huge with Chhattisgarh
having 39.93% of people living below poverty and Andaman and Nicobar Islands
having 1% of people living below poverty. From 2004-05 to 2011-12, percentage of
people below poverty line has decreased from 13.8% to 5% in Goa but in
Chhattisgarh it is has decreased from 40.9% to 39.93% only. This reveals that there
are disparities in poverty reduction. Adding to that, maternal mortality rates for
example vary between 61 deaths per 100,000 births in Kerala to over 300 deaths in
Assam.16

4.) Inclusivity problem: Access to good schools, health care, electricity, safe water, and
other critical services remains elusive for many people, often determined by
socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and geography. In the case of India, 43% of
ST, 29% of SC and 21% of OBC are poor. Only 29% of Indians are SC and ST but
43% of poor are SC and ST.17 Between 2004 and 2011, 16.2 crore people escaped
poverty, a pace that exceeded that of developing the world and middle-income
countries. However, the number of poor living in India was 270,000,000 (27 crore) in
2012, as per latest data by the World Bank. Of the total poor, a higher percentage was
from Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs). The most vulnerable
communities, include, but are not be limited to: households in extreme poverty, both
rural and urban; households residing in urban slums and informal settlements;
vulnerable women, children, and young people (15-29 years), especially those
belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; orphans and street children;
manual scavengers, migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers; the elderly; displaced

15
https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/OccasionalPaper_No2_Poverty.pdf
16
http://in.one.un.org/poverty-and-urbanisation/
17
www.worldbank.org/en/news/infographic/2016/05/27/india-s-poverty-profile
 populations; religious and other minorities; people with disabilities; the LGBTI
community, sex workers and drug users; people in prisons; and persons living with
HIV.18
.
5.) The process of measurement of poverty in India has been subjected to repeated
contestations. The fact that judgments on what represents a basic necessity of life
vary from person to person makes the choice of a poverty line difficult. Poverty line
and the poverty ratio have three potential uses: identification of poor; allocation of
expenditure on antipoverty programs across states or regions; and tracking poverty
over time and across regions. However, other methods are also used to allocate the
expenditure on anti-poverty programmes. For example, the expenditure on the
provision of housing across states can be done according to the proportion of
households without house within a given state.
Likewise, there is no agreed approach to aggregating across various dimensions of
poverty to arrive at a single indicator of poverty. Adding to that, the present measure
of poverty using Tendulkar Poverty line also has some weaknesses. The key source of
public dissatisfaction with the Tendulkar line was that it would deprive many
households in need of government assistance from such assistance by classifying
them as above poverty line (APL) households.19

6.) Rapidly increasing population: By 2030, the world’s population will have increased
by as many as 1.7 billion people. 90% of this urban explosion will occur in Asia and
Africa. By 2030, more than 400 million people will be living in cities in India.
Furthermore, today, one in every six of India’s urban households live in slums, a
number forecast to rise exponentially over the coming years. 20

7.) According to international poverty line ($1.90) 268.1 million people live below
poverty line. However, according to lower middle income class poverty line ($3.20),
762.9 million people live below poverty line. Thus, the performance of India is not as
satisfactory with respect to the lower middle income class criteria.21
8.) There is also an ongoing debate involving the impact of growth on the poor. Whether
the overall growth is helping the poor or it is leaving certain social and religious
groups behind remains a contested discourse.
9.) Rapid urbanization: The urban share of India’s population was around 31 percent
according to the 2011 census and is expected to cross 40 percent by 2030.17 While
bringing a range of economic benefits, such rapid urbanisation has brought with it

18
https://in.one.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UNSDF_Print-Revised-To-be-Approved-low-res.pdf
19
https://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/OccasionalPaper_No2_Poverty.pdf
20
http://in.one.un.org/poverty-and-urbanisation/
21
http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/IND
 enormous challenges, most noticeably in the form of demand-supply gaps in housing,
infrastructure and services. One in six people in urban areas lives in slums.22

Way forward

Inclusion is critical to the broader aims of sustainable, inclusive economic growth and poverty
reduction. Equality across all the SDGs should be at the centre of India’s policies which are
aimed at achieving sustainable development goals. Adding to that, there is a need to shift the
discourse towards gender equality and mainstream it across all SDGs.

Human capital development: India ranks 130 out 189 countries on HDI as per the 2018 Global
Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP). India’s HDI value for 2017 is 0.640, which put the country in the medium human
development category.23 Disparity in education by income has decreased in all types of education
over the years. More emphasis should now placed on ensuring access to quality education as
poor quality education leading to low skills fails to get poor children out of poverty. Other types
of disparity in education such as disparity by disability and ethnic groups need to be addressed.
On the other hand, there are several areas in which, if modified, MGNREGA could deliver
significantly better outcomes than currently. For example, the scheme could be modified to
impart skills. This would pave the way for many workers to exit the program.

Due the inherent information asymmetries prevalent in public provision, there are inefficiencies
in the way the benefits reach the intended beneficiaries. Since revamping entire systems of
public provision are very costly for governments, cheaper solutions such as the use of technology
can help improve monitoring and supervision of government programmes.

Strengthening partnerships with the private sector, research organizations, and local and
international organizations, to co-create development solutions will ensure that the poor gain
better market access and benefit from sustained earnings and enhanced incomes, and will provide
innovative, affordable, development solutions.

Supporting innovative solutions and different options to implement new models (lease, rental
etc.) for provision of affordable housing to poor households and shelters to homeless women and
men in select cities will also ensure that the desired results are achieved.

Thus there is a need to focus on steps necessary to accelerate growth such that it generates
employment opportunities in large volume and helps raise wages; and steps towards making anti-
poverty programs more effective. Ensuring people have access to good education, employment
and support for their health and wellbeing is the best protection against persistent poverty.

22
https://in.one.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UNSDF_Print-Revised-To-be-Approved-low-res.pdf
23
https://in.one.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/UNSDF_Print-Revised-To-be-Approved-low-res.pdf
Targeting the welfare system to those who need it the most will ensure maximum inclusion both
financially and socially.

Human Resource Development- Case Study

The success stories of the Republic of Korea and Taipei, China bear out the importance of
investment in upgrading human resources as a precondition for supporting and stimulating a
labour-using growth process. Both economies were characterized by much higher levels of
literacy and spread of primary education at the early stages of their development than is the case
in most of the low-income countries today. Adult literacy in 1960 was 70 per cent in the
Republic of Korea and 54 per cent in Taipei, China. By contrast, in 1980, it was only 26 per cent
in Bangladesh, 36 per cent in India and 24 per cent in Pakistan. It is interesting to note that in
1980, adult literacy rates had reached levels between 60 per cent and 70 per cent in Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. In this respect, these economies appear to have achieved an
important structural precondition for sustaining rapid growth with labour absorption.

There is an obvious lesson here about the emphasis that needs to be given to the achievement of
universal literacy and the expansion and improvement of primary and secondary education. This
in turn requires a major commitment of public resources to primary and secondary education.
These sectors should actually have priority over higher education but often get less than their fair
share. The balance between resources allocated to education through the traditional academic
stream and resources allocated to vocational and technical training streams may also need to be
altered in favour of the latter.

Human Resource Development- Case Study

The success stories of the Republic of Korea and Taipei, China bear out the importance of
investment in upgrading human resources as a precondition for supporting and stimulating a
labour-using growth process. Both economies were characterized by much higher levels of
literacy and spread of primary education at the early stages of their development than is the case
in most of the low-income countries today. Adult literacy in 1960 was 70 per cent in the
Republic of Korea and 54 per cent in Taipei, China. By contrast, in 1980, it was only 26 per cent
in Bangladesh, 36 per cent in India and 24 per cent in Pakistan. It is interesting to note that in
1980, adult literacy rates had reached levels between 60 per cent and 70 per cent in Indonesia,
Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. In this respect, these economies appear to have achieved an
important structural precondition for sustaining rapid growth with labour absorption.
There is an obvious lesson here about the emphasis that needs to be given to the achievement of
universal literacy and the expansion and improvement of primary and secondary education. This
in turn requires a major commitment of public resources to primary and secondary education.
These sectors should actually have priority over higher education but often get less than their fair
share. The balance between resources allocated to education through the traditional academic
stream and resources allocated to vocational and technical training streams may also need to be
altered in favour of the latter.

Points for inter-connectedness

Poverty also staves people off from accessing much needed social tools of well-being like
education and health requirements. The direct consequences stemming from this problem are
hunger, malnutrition and susceptibility to diseases which have been identified as major problems
across the world. It impacts individuals in a socio-psychological way with them not being able to
afford simple recreational activities and getting progressively marginalized in the society. 24

Education is the cause and consequence of poverty. – vicious cycle

Poverty has an effect on health. Most prominent issue is that of malnutrition.

24
https://learn.culturalindia.net/essay-poverty-india-causes-effects-solutions.html