short essay on poverty alleviation

Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development Essay

Introduction, causes of poverty, how poverty alleviation may help in achieving sustainable development.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which were set by 189 countries, consisted of global targets aimed at improving livelihoods and eliminating numerous deprivations, among them poverty. In fact, the countries considered poverty as the most serious problem and affirmed their dedication to eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. According to Tagler and Cozzarelli (2013), poverty is an economic condition that is characterized by sustained low levels of income. The status affects access to basic services of education, health, food, and shelter. The research focuses on the causes of poverty and the benefits of poverty alleviation in achieving sustainable development.

Poverty is a long-term consequence of economic, social, and political failures. According to Williams (2013), an author with ‘The Borgen Project (NGO)’, causes of poverty are categorized into four major categories. One of the causes of poverty is discrimination and social inequality. Levels of inequalities in income distribution, access to basic amenities, legal structures, and information lead to serious economic disparities that subject victims to poverty. Additionally, Burton and Development Programme United Nations (2005) consider war and political instability as a leading cause of poverty. Political instabilities and wars affect insecurities and social and legal structures responsible for enhancing equitable distribution of resources and wealth. Ineffective policies expose people to exploitation and corruption. Sociopolitical failures affect literacy levels and access to information, which is vital in promoting self-actualization. Similarly, geopolitical histories and locations are other major causes of poverty. At-risk countries exposed to frequent natural catastrophes experience serious challenges in sustaining infrastructure development, effective information communications, and delivery of communal amenities. Additionally, historical political conflicts led to the depletion of vital resources from colonies of historic superpowers. The last cause of poverty is the national debt accrued from local and international loans. The loans increase financial constraints in the affected countries and deter the implementation of development initiatives that empower citizens.

The Commission on Human Rights considers poverty eradication as an effective strategy for combating social and economic inequalities. There have been different poverty alleviation measures, including food distribution, the building of infrastructures and schools, intervening in politically unstable countries, and providing financial support, among others. Lloyd-Jones and Rakodi (2013) argue that poverty alleviation programs contribute greatly to achieving sustainable development. One of the benefits of poverty alleviation programs in achieving sustainable development is in empowering the poor. Provision of education, electricity, stable political structures and favorable market conditions are some of the poverty alleviation strategies that empower poor people. The other sustainable development target in poverty alleviation is introducing equality and non-discrimination measures. These initiatives ensure that affected persons are self-sufficient. Equality and accountability are also assured in poverty alleviation when funding goes from donors to governments yet to streamline local structures. Additionally, civil and social rights are streamlined through poverty alleviation strategies.

Poverty is one of the most challenging issues among global institutions. The causes of poverty have been associated with political failures, historical implications, and infringed human rights. The research demonstrates the need to address poverty in order to uphold human rights for the welfare of global sustained developments. Whereas human rights are not rigid, poverty needs a flexible platform to integrate affected people while targeting corrupt and compromised officials in the global governments.

Burton, I., & Development Programme United Nations. (2005). Adaptation policy frameworks for climate change: developing strategies, policies and measures. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

Lloyd-Jones, T., & Rakodi, C. (2013). Urban livelihoods: A people-centred approach to reducing poverty . Ney York, NY: Routledge.

Tagler, M. J., & Cozzarelli, C. (2013). Feelings toward the poor and beliefs about the causes of poverty: The role of affective-cognitive consistency in help-giving. The Journal of psychology , 147 (6), 517-539.

Williams, D. (2013). What are Causes of Global Poverty? Web.

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• improving access to sustainable livelihoods, entrepreneurial opportunities and productive resources;
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• working with interested donors and recipients to allocate increased shares of ODA to poverty eradication; and
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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Evaluating poverty alleviation strategies in a developing country

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), Anand, Gujarat, India

Roles Data curation

• Pramod K. Singh, 
• Harpalsinh Chudasama

• Published: January 13, 2020
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

A slew of participatory and community-demand-driven approaches have emerged in order to address the multi-dimensional nature of poverty in developing nations. The present study identifies critical factors responsible for poverty alleviation in India with the aid of fuzzy cognitive maps (FCMs) deployed for showcasing causal reasoning. It is through FCM-based simulations that the study evaluates the efficacy of existing poverty alleviation approaches, including community organisation based micro-financing, capability and social security, market-based and good governance. Our findings confirm, to some degree, the complementarity of various approaches to poverty alleviation that need to be implemented simultaneously for a comprehensive poverty alleviation drive. FCM-based simulations underscore the need for applying an integrated and multi-dimensional approach incorporating elements of various approaches for eradicating poverty, which happens to be a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Besides, the study offers policy implications for the design, management, and implementation of poverty eradication programmes. On the methodological front, the study enriches FCM literature in the areas of knowledge capture, sample adequacy, and robustness of the dynamic system model.

Citation: Singh PK, Chudasama H (2020) Evaluating poverty alleviation strategies in a developing country. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0227176. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176

Editor: Stefan Cristian Gherghina, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, ROMANIA

Received: September 27, 2019; Accepted: December 9, 2019; Published: January 13, 2020

Copyright: © 2020 Singh, Chudasama. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files. The aggregated condensed matrix (social cognitive map) is given in S1 Table . One can replicate the findings of this study by analyzing this weight matrix.

Funding: The World Bank and the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India

Competing interests: We hereby declare that none of the authors have any conflict of interest on this paper.

1. Introduction

1.1. poverty alleviation strategies.

Although poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, poverty levels are often measured using economic dimensions based on income and consumption [ 1 ]. Amartya Sen’s capability deprivation approach for poverty measurement, on the other hand, defines poverty as not merely a matter of actual income but an inability to acquire certain minimum capabilities [ 2 ]. Contemplating this dissimilarity between individuals’ incomes and their inabilities is significant since the conversion of actual incomes into actual capabilities differs with social settings and individual beliefs [ 2 – 4 ]. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also emphasises the capabilities’ approach for poverty measurement as propounded by Amartya Sen [ 5 ]. “ Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere ” is the first of the 17 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations with a pledge that no one will be left behind [ 6 ]. Development projects and poverty alleviation programmes all over the world are predominantly aimed at reducing poverty of the poor and vulnerable communities through various participatory and community-demand-driven approaches [ 7 , 8 ]. Economic growth is one of the principal instruments for poverty alleviation and for pulling the poor out of poverty through productive employment [ 9 , 10 ]. Studies from Africa, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, and Indonesia show that rapid economic growth lifted a significant number of poor people out of financial poverty between 1970 and 2000 [ 11 ]. According to Bhagwati and Panagariya, economic growth generates revenues required for expanding poverty alleviation programmes while enabling governments to spend on the basic necessities of the poor including healthcare, education, and housing [ 9 ]. Poverty alleviation strategies may be categorised into four types including community organisations based micro-financing, capability and social security, market-based, and good governance.

Micro-finance, aimed at lifting the poor out of poverty, is a predominant poverty alleviation strategy. Having spread rapidly and widely over the last few decades, it is currently operational across several developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America [ 12 – 21 ]. Many researchers and policy-makers believe that access to micro-finance in developing countries empowers the poor (especially women) while supporting income-generating activities, encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit, and reducing vulnerability [ 15 , 21 – 25 ]. There are fewer studies, however, that show conclusive and definite evidence regarding improvements in health, nutrition, and education attributable to micro-finance [ 21 , 22 ]. For micro-finance to be more effective, services like skill development training, technological support, and strategies related to better education, health and sanitation, including livelihood enhancement measures need to be included [ 13 , 17 , 19 ].

Economic growth and micro-finance for the poor might throw some light on the financial aspects of poverty, yet they do not reflect its cultural, social, and psychological dimensions [ 11 , 21 , 26 ]. Although economic growth is vital for enhancing the living conditions of the poor, it does not necessarily help the poor exclusively tilting in favour of the non-poor and privileged sections of society [ 4 ]. Amartya Sen cites social exclusion and capability deprivation as reasons for poverty [ 4 , 27 ]. His capabilities’ approach is intended to enhance people’s well-being and freedom of choices [ 4 , 27 ]. According to Sen, development should focus on maximising the individual’s ability to ensure more freedom of choices [ 27 , 28 ]. The capabilities approach provides a framework for the evaluation and assessment of several aspects of the individual’s well-being and social arrangements. It highlights the difference between means and ends as well as between substantive freedoms and outcomes. An example being the difference between fasting and starving [ 27 – 29 ]. Improving capabilities of the poor is critical for improving their living conditions [ 4 , 10 ]. Improving individuals’ capabilities also helps in the pooling of resources while allowing the poor to engage in activities that benefit them economically [ 4 , 30 ]. Social inclusion of vulnerable communities through the removal of social barriers is as significant as financial inclusion in poverty reduction strategies [ 31 , 32 ]. Social security is a set of public actions designed to reduce levels of vulnerability, risk, and deprivation [ 11 ]. It is an important instrument for addressing the issues of inequality and vulnerability [ 32 ]. It also induces gender parity owing to the equal sovereignty enjoyed by both men and women in the context of economic, social, and political activities [ 33 ].

The World Development Report 1990 endorsed a poverty alleviation strategy that combines enhanced economic growth with provisions of essential social services directed towards the poor while creating financial and social safety nets [ 34 , 35 ]. Numerous social safety net programmes and public spending on social protection, including social insurance schemes and social assistance payments, continue to act as tools of poverty alleviation in many of the developing countries across the world [ 35 – 39 ]. These social safety nets and protection programmes show positive impacts on the reduction of poverty, extent, vulnerability, and on a wide range of social inequalities in developing countries. One major concern dogging these programmes, however, is their long-term sustainability [ 35 ].

Agriculture and allied farm activities have been the focus of poverty alleviation strategies in rural areas. Lately, though, much of the focus has shifted to livelihood diversification on the part of researchers and policy-makers [ 15 , 40 ]. Promoting non-farm livelihoods, along with farm activities, can offer pathways for economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing countries the world over [ 40 – 44 ]. During the early 2000s, the development of comprehensive value chains and market systems emerged as viable alternatives for poverty alleviation in developing countries [ 45 ]. Multi-sectoral micro-enterprises may be deployed for enhancing productivity and profitability through value chains and market systems, they being important for income generation of the rural poor while playing a vital role in inclusive poverty eradication in developing countries [ 46 – 48 ].

Good governance relevant to poverty alleviation has gained top priority in development agendas over the past few decades [ 49 , 50 ]. Being potentially weak in the political and administrative areas of governance, developing countries have to deal with enormous challenges related to social services and security [ 49 , 51 ]. In order to receive financial aid from multinational donor agencies, a good governance approach towards poverty reduction has become a prerequisite for developing countries [ 49 , 50 ]. This calls for strengthening a participatory, transparent, and accountable form of governance if poverty has to be reduced while improving the lives of the poor and vulnerable [ 50 , 51 ]. Despite the importance of this subject, very few studies have explored the direct relationship between good governance and poverty alleviation [ 50 , 52 , 53 ]. Besides, evidence is available, both in India and other developing countries, of information and communication technology (ICT) contributing to poverty alleviation programmes [ 54 ]. Capturing, storing, processing, and transmitting various types of information with the help of ICT empowers the rural poor by increasing access to micro-finance, expanding the use of basic and advance government services, enabling the development of additional livelihood assets, and facilitating pro-poor market development [ 54 – 56 ].

1.2. Proposed contribution of the paper

Several poverty alleviation programmes around the world affirm that socio-political inclusion of the poor and vulnerable, improvement of social security, and livelihood enhancement coupled with activities including promoting opportunities for socio-economic growth, facilitating gender empowerment, improving facilities for better healthcare and education, and stepping up vulnerability reduction are central to reducing the overall poverty of poor and vulnerable communities [ 1 , 11 ]. These poverty alleviation programmes remain instruments of choice for policy-makers and development agencies even as they showcase mixed achievements in different countries and localities attributable to various economic and socio-cultural characteristics, among other things. Several poverty alleviation programmes continue to perform poorly despite significant investments [ 8 ]. The failure rate of the World Bank’s development projects was above 50% in Africa until 2000 [ 57 ]. Hence, identifying context-specific factors critical to the success of poverty alleviation programmes is vital.

Rich literature is available pertinent to the conceptual aspects of poverty alleviation. Extant literature emphasises the importance of enhancing capabilities and providing social safety, arranging high-quality community organisation based micro-financing, working on economic development, and ensuring good governance. However, the literature is scanty with regard to comparative performances of the above approaches. The paper tries to fill this gap. This study, through fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM)-based simulations, evaluates the efficacy of these approaches while calling for an integrative approach involving actions on all dimensions to eradicate the multi-dimensional nature of poverty. Besides, the paper aims to make a two-fold contribution to the FCM literature: i) knowledge capture and sample adequacy, and ii) robustness of the dynamic system model.

The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows: We describe the methodology adopted in the study in section two. Section three illustrates key features of the FCM system in the context of poverty alleviation, FCM-based causal linkages, and policy scenarios for poverty alleviation with the aid of FCM-based simulations. We present our contribution to the extant literature relating to FCM and poverty alleviation. Finally, we conclude the paper and offer policy implications of the study.

2. Methodology

We conducted the study with the aid of the FCM-based approach introduced by Kosko in 1986 [ 58 ]. The process of data capture in the FCM approach is considered quasi-quantitative because the quantification of concepts and links may be interpreted in relative terms [ 59 ] allowing participants to debate the cause-effect relations between the qualitative concepts while generating quantitative data based on their experiences, knowledge, and perceptions of inter-relationships between concepts [ 60 – 64 , 65 – 68 ]. The FCM approach helps us visualise how interconnected factors/ variables/ concepts affect one another while representing self-loop and feedback within complex systems [ 62 , 63 , 69 ]. A cognitive map is a signed digraph with a series of feedback comprising concepts (nodes) that describe system behavior and links (edges) representing causal relationships between concepts [ 60 – 63 , 65 , 70 – 72 ]. FCMs may be created by individuals as well as by groups [ 60 , 72 , 73 ]. Individual cognitive mapping and group meeting approaches have their advantages and drawbacks [ 72 ]. FCMs allow the analysis of non-linear systems with causal relations, while their recurrent neural network behaviour [ 69 , 70 , 74 ] help in modelling complex and hard-to-model systems [ 61 – 63 ]. The FCM approach also provides the means to build multiple scenarios through system-based modelling [ 60 – 64 , 69 , 74 , 75 ].

The strengths and applications of FCM methodology, focussing on mental models, vary in terms of approach. It is important to remember, though, that (i) the FCM approach is not driven by data unavailability but is responsible for generating data [ 60 , 76 ]. Also that (ii) FCMs can model complex and ambiguous systems revealing hidden and important feedback within the systems [ 58 , 60 , 62 , 69 , 76 ] and (iii) FCMs have the ability to represent, integrate, and compare data–an example being expert opinion vis-à-vis indigenous knowledge–from multiple sources while divulging divergent viewpoints [ 60 ]. (iv) Finally, FCMs enable various policy simulations through an interactive scenario analysis [ 60 , 62 , 69 , 76 ].

The FCM methodology does have its share of weaknesses. To begin with: (i) Respondents’ misconceptions and biases tend to get encoded in the maps [ 60 , 62 ]. (ii) Possibility of susceptibility to group power dynamics in a group model-building setting cannot be ruled out; (iii) FCMs require a large amount of post-processing time [ 67 ]. (iv) The FCM-based simulations are non-real value and relative parameter estimates and lack spatial and temporal representation [ 60 , 77 , 78 ].

These drawbacks notwithstanding, we, along with many researchers, conceded that the strengths and applications of FCM methodology outweighed the former, particularly with regard to integrating data from multiple stakeholders with different viewpoints.

We adopted the multi-step FCM methodology discussed in the following sub-sections. We adopted the multi-step FCM methodology discussed in the following sub-sections. We obtained individual cognitive maps from the participants in two stages: ‘open-concept design’ approach followed by the ‘pre-concept design’ approach. We coded individual cognitive maps into adjacency matrices and aggregated individual cognitive maps to form a social cognitive map. FCM-based simulation was used to build policy scenarios for poverty alleviation using different input vectors.

2.1. Obtaining cognitive maps from the participants

A major proportion of the literature on fuzzy cognitive maps reflects an ‘open-concept design’ approach, while some studies also rely on a ‘pre-designed concept’ approach with regard to data collection.

In the case of the ‘open-concept design’ approach, concepts are determined entirely by participants and are unrestricted [ 59 , 60 , 62 , 63 , 65 – 67 , 79 , 80 ]. While the researcher determines the context of the model by specifying the system being modelled, including the boundaries of the system, participants are allowed to decide what concepts will be included. This approach provides very little restriction in the knowledge capture from participants and can be extremely beneficial especially if there is insufficient knowledge regarding the system being modelled.

In the case of the ‘pre-designed concept’ approach, concepts are pre-determined either by experts or by researchers using available literature [ 64 , 69 , 74 , 81 , 82 ]. In this approach, the researcher is able to exercise a higher degree of control over how the system is defined. The ‘pre-designed concept’ approach is likely to be more efficient compared to the ‘open-concept design’ in the context of time required for model building. However, it restricts the diversity of knowledge captured from participants and is able to influence more heavily the way in which this knowledge is contextualised based on input and interpretation.

We have adopted a ‘mixed-concept design’ approach for this study involving data collection in two stages:

2.1.1. Stage one: ‘Open-concept design’ approach.

During the first stage, we engaged with the experts and national-level policy-makers who designed the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana -National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), a centrally sponsored programme in India. The DAY-NRLM aims at abolishing rural poverty by promoting multiple livelihoods for the rural poor and vulnerable households. The programme is focussed on organising the rural poor and vulnerable communities into self-help groups (SHGs) while equipping them with means of self-employment. The four critical components of the programme viz ., (i) universal social mobilisation and institution building, (ii) financial inclusion, (iii) convergence and social development, and (iv) livelihood enhancement are designed to address the exclusions of these communities, eliminate their poverty, and bring them within the ambit of mainstream economic and social systems. Participants comprising three experts from the World Bank, nine experts from the National Mission Management Unit of the DAY-NRLM, and 25 monitoring and evaluation experts from 25 states of India created 37 FCMs. A sample map of FCMs obtained from these participants is provided in S1 Fig . We demonstrated the construction of fuzzy cognitive maps with the aid of a map from a neutral problem domain referring to direct and consequential impacts of deforestation, which had been approved by the ‘Research Ethics Committee’ of our Institute.

A group discussion was held with the participants regarding the issues under investigation subsumed under the title “critical factors required to ensure that people come out of poverty on a sustainable basis”. It prompted them to identify major concepts pertaining to the above. These were listed down on a whiteboard by the researchers. Once the participants had understood the process of drawing a fuzzy cognitive map and identified major concepts responsible for poverty alleviation, they were asked to draw a fuzzy cognitive map individually. The participants used the concepts listed on the whiteboard to draw fuzzy cognitive maps. Many participants added new concepts while drawing the maps. They then connected all the concepts through various links based on their personal understanding. The links, represented by arrows in between concepts, show the direction of influence between them.

The participants assigned weights to each link on a scale of 1–10 to describe the relationship strength between two concepts [ 60 ]. Ten denoted the highest strength and one the lowest; the numbers 1–3 signified relationships with low strength, 4–6 signified relationships with medium strength, and 7–10 signified relationships with high strength. After constructing the FCMs each participant made a presentation, which was video-recorded, explaining their map to the researchers. The researchers, based on causal relationships between the concepts, assigned positive and negative polarities to the weights of the links [ 59 , 60 , 62 – 64 , 66 – 68 , 72 ].

2.1.2. Stage two: ‘Pre-designed concept’ approach.

During the second stage, an instrument depicting 95 concepts under 22 concept categories was prepared based on the FCMs obtained from participants during the first stage ( S2 Fig ). The instrument also contained links between the 22 concept categories. ‘Research Ethics Committee’ of our Institute approved this instrument as well. We used this instrument during the second stage to obtain FCMs. We obtained 123 additional FCMs, of which 20 FCMs were obtained from the Chief Executive Officers along with experts from livelihood, enterprise, and community development domains belonging to the National Mission Management Unit in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The remaining 103 FCMs were obtained from 103 district project coordinators, who had agreed to participate in the study. Unlike most FCM-based studies, which usually rely upon 30 to 50 participants, this study involved 174 experts and project implementers. Most participants produced FCMs individually and some in pairs. The 174 participants produced 160 FCMs.

The participants were given the instrument and were instructed to assign weights to each concept, wherever applicable, and leave other cells blank. These weights were assigned based on the concepts’ significance regarding poverty alleviation in India. The instrument was designed to allow participants to add new concepts and/or remove existing ones from the instrument based on their understanding and perceptions. Later, the participants were asked to assign weights to all pre-established links between the 22 concept categories. The instrument also allowed participants to draw new linkages between the categories and/or discard the existing relationships based on their understanding and perceptions. After constructing the FCMs each participant made a presentation to the researchers, which was video-recorded. During the process, participants added 55 new concepts within the pre-classified 22 concept categories. Five new concepts were added under a new category. The final data comprised 23 concept categories and 155 concepts ( S3 Fig ).

2.2. Coding individual cognitive maps into adjacency matrices

The individual FCMs were coded into separate excel sheets, with concepts listed in vertical and horizontal axes, forming an N x N adjacency matrix. The weights of the links, on a scale of 1−10, were normalised in the −1 to +1 range [ 62 , 63 ]. The values were then coded into a square adjacency matrix whenever a connection existed between any two concepts [ 60 , 62 – 64 , 66 ].

2.3. Aggregation of individual cognitive maps

This aggregation approach has been adopted by many researchers [ 59 , 60 , 63 – 67 , 74 , 79 , 84 – 87 ]. A large number of concepts in an aggregated (social/ group) fuzzy cognitive map with many interconnections and feedback form a complex system. Aggregation of all the 160 individual cognitive maps produced a social cognitive map ( S1 Table ). This shows the cumulative strength of the system.

2.4. Structural analysis of the system

Structural analysis of the final condensed social cognitive map was undertaken using the FCMapper software. The graph theory of a cognitive map provides a way of characterising FCM structures employing several indices in addition to the number of concepts (C) and links (W) such as in-degree, out-degree, centrality, complexity index, and density index [ 60 ].

The degree centrality of a concept is the summation of its in-degree and out-degree. The higher the value, the greater is the importance of a concept in the overall model [ 60 ].

Transmitter concepts (T) depict positive out-degree and zero in-degree. Receiver concepts (R) represent positive in-degree and zero out-degree. Ordinary concepts (O) have both a non-zero in-degree and out-degree [ 60 ].

2.5. Fuzzy cognitive maps-based simulations

The scenarios formed through FCM-based simulations can serve to guide managers and policy-makers during the decision-making process [ 62 – 64 , 66 , 69 , 82 , 88 – 90 ]. An FCM is formed out of the adjacency matrix and a state vector, representing the values of the connections between the concepts and the values of the system concepts [ 62 , 63 , 69 ]. The weighted adjacency matrix of an FCM forms a recurrent neural network, including concepts and interconnections for processing the information and feedback loops [ 88 , 91 ]. These have been used to analyse system behavior by running FCM-based simulations in order to determine possible future scenarios.

In order to understand FCM-based simulations, let us understand the FCM as a quadruple, i.e. M = (C n , W , A , f) , where, n is the set of all concepts ( C ) in the map, W : ( C i , C j ) → w ij is a function which defines the causal weight matrix, W M × M , A : ( C i ) → A ( t ) i is a function that computes the activation degree of each concept C i at the discrete-time step t ( t = 1, 2, …, T ), and f (.) is the transfer function [ 63 , 71 , 92 , 93 ]. Knowledge and experience of stakeholders regarding the system determine the type and number of concepts as well as the weights of the links in FCMs. The value A i of a concept C i , expresses the quantity of its corresponding value. With values assigned to the concepts and weights, the FCM converges to an equilibrium point [ 71 , 91 ]. At each step, the value A i of a concept is calculated, following an activation rule, which computes the influence of other concepts to a specific concept.

Where, n is the total number of concepts, A i ( t +1) is the value of concept C i at simulation step t +1, A i ( t ) is the value of concept C i at simulation step t , A j ( t ) is the value of concept C j at simulation step t , w ji is the weight of the interconnection between concept C j and concept C i , and f is the transformation function [ 64 , 90 ]. The restriction i ≠ j is used when self-causation is assumed to be impossible [ 91 ].

2.5.1. Development of input vectors for policy scenarios.

Identifying pivotal concepts is a traditional approach in scenario planning that helps linking storylines to the quantitative model [ 96 ]. In the FCM-based scenario analysis, recognition of such pivotal concepts, termed as input vectors, mainly relies upon participants’ perceptions along with the characteristics of the model. We identified four input vectors for four poverty alleviation policy scenarios based on existing literature on poverty alleviation strategies. The fifth input vector is based on the concepts with the highest weights identified by the participants. In the sixth input vector, the concept representing entrepreneurship is replaced by the concept representing livelihood diversification considering its importance based on existing literature [ 15 , 40 ]. All six scenarios are explained below:

Scenario 1 : High-quality community organisation based micro-financing —Input vector 1: C2, C3, C4, C5, C11, and C12 (strong institutions of the poor, community heroes driving the programme, capacity building of the community organisations, mainstream financial institutions supporting community organisations, need-based finance, and developing repayment culture). This scenario tries to examine how high-quality community organisation based micro-finance could alleviate poverty.

Scenario 2 : Capabilities and social security —Input vector 2: C19, C20, C21, C22, and C23 (affordable and approachable education and healthcare, social inclusion, building personal assets, adequate knowledge base, and vulnerability reduction). This scenario tries to estimate how improving the capabilities of the poor and providing them social security would help alleviate poverty.

Scenario 3 : Market-based approach —Input vector 3: C13, C14, C15, C16, and C17 (livelihood diversification, entrepreneurship, multi-sectoral collective enterprise, value addition by collectives, and market linkages). This scenario tries to evaluate how a market-based approach could alleviate poverty.

Scenario 4 : Good governance approach —Input vector 4: C6, C7, C8, C9, and C10 (good governance systems and processes, robust monitoring mechanisms, implementation process, linkages/ convergence/ partnerships, and enabling policy & political will). This scenario tries to evaluate how good governance is crucial for poverty alleviation.

Scenario 5 : Integrative approach 1 —Input vector 5: C2, C3, C6, C9, C10, C14, and C19 (strong institutions of the poor, community heroes driving the programme, sound governance systems and processes, enabling policy & political will, linkages/ convergence/ partnerships, entrepreneurship, and affordable and approachable education and healthcare). This scenario tries to assess how the most critical concepts, identified by the participants, are crucial for poverty alleviation.

Scenario 6 : Integrative approach 2 —Input vector 6: C2, C3, C6, C9, C10, C13, and C19 (strong institutions of the poor, community heroes driving the programme, good governance systems and processes, enabling policy & political will, linkages/ convergence/ partnerships, livelihood diversification, and affordable and approachable education and healthcare). This scenario tries to assess how the most important concepts, including livelihood diversification, are critical for the alleviation of poverty. Based on the relative weights, scenarios 4 to 6 also had alternative input vectors incorporating sensitive support structure (C1) without any demonstrable results.

2.5.2. Simulation process.

Each concept in the system has an initial state vector A 0 that varies from 0 to |1|. which is associated with an activation vector, where 0 means ‘non-activated’ and |1| means ‘activated’ [ 65 , 80 ]. A new state of the concepts can be calculated by multiplying the adjacency matrix with the state vector [ 69 ]. When one or more concepts are ‘activated’ this activation spreads through the matrix following the weighted relationships. During the simulation process, each iteration produces a new state vector with ‘activated’ concepts and ‘non-activated’ concepts. Self-loops and feedback cause a repeated activation of concepts, introducing non-linearity to the model [ 61 , 70 , 88 ]. The activation of concepts is iterated, using a ‘squashing function’ to rescale concept values towards |1|, until the vector values stabilise and the model reaches equilibrium or steady-state [ 61 , 65 , 70 ]. The resulting concept values may be used to interpret outcomes of a particular scenario and to study the dynamics of the modeled system [ 61 – 63 , 70 ].

The simulation process is carried out with the initial state vector of the input vectors, identified in each scenario (1 to 6), clamped to 1 ( A 1 ) and the initial state vector of all the other concepts clamped to 0 ( A 0 ). We applied the activation rule proposed by Stylios [ 94 ], to run simulations because of its memory capabilities along with the sigmoid transformation function as the links have only positive values. The sensitivity of the system was analysed by clamping the concepts of each input vector to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9 ( S4 Fig ) to determine whether the system behaves in a similar manner in each simulation [ 62 , 63 , 72 , 89 ].

3. Results and discussions

3.1. key features of the fcm system in the context of poverty alleviation.

The social cognitive map built by combining the individual FCMs comprises 23 concepts and 51 links ( Fig 2 and S1 Table ). This FCM system has a density index of 0.088, which signifies that 8.8% links are actually made of the maximum number of links that could theoretically exist between the 24 concepts. The FCM system has a complexity index of 0.125, which showcases more utility outcomes and less controlling forcing functions. However, unless the density and complexity values of the FCM system are compared to those of other FCM systems representing a similar topic, interpretation of these figures is challenging [ 75 ].

There are some autonomous concepts virtually disengaged from the system. Some dependent concepts although have a relatively low degree of influence, exhibit strong dependence. The contribution of a concept in a cognitive map can be understood by its degree centrality, which is the summation of in-degree and out-degree. Table 1 illustrates the in-degree and out-degree and degree centrality of the FCM system. Concepts have been depicted such as C2: strong institutions of the poor, C15: multi-sectoral collective enterprise development, C13: livelihood diversification and C14: entrepreneurship have higher degree centrality. These concepts should be interpreted as the greatest strength of poverty alleviation strategies. The most influential concepts (i.e., those with the highest out-degree) affecting the poverty alleviation strategies are C6: good governance systems and processes, C19: affordable and approachable education and healthcare, C18: climate-smart production systems, C2: strong institutions of the poor, and C5: mainstream financial institutions supporting CBOs. Scenario analysis results will later help us gain a deeper understanding of the connectivity and influencing concepts of poverty alleviation.

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.t001

The participants also provided the state vector values (A) of all the concepts (C) based on their understanding of the relative significance of these concepts regarding poverty alleviation in India ( Fig 1 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.g001

The results show that participants assigned greater significance to the following concepts- C3: community heroes driving the programme, C1: quality support structure, C19: affordable and approachable education and healthcare, C6: good governance systems and processes, C2: strong institutions of the poor, C12: developing repayment culture, and C7: robust monitoring mechanisms.

The results acknowledge that building strong institutions of the poor for a community-demand-driven and community-managed poverty alleviation programme is likely to enjoy greater success. They also confirm that developing robust monitoring mechanisms can ensure better functioning of the community-based organisations (CBOs). Robust governance systems and processes are essential for vibrant CBOs. They can empower communities to have better access to affordable education and healthcare facilities. Better access to micro-finance for these CBOs could help alleviate the economic poverty of the poor and vulnerable communities.

The results, however, fail to capture the cultural and social dimensions of poverty.

3.2. Understanding the poverty alleviation strategy

This section summarises the views of participants across the concepts based on the presentations made by them to the researcher during both the stages of knowledge capture. Fig 2 illustrates the cognitive interpretive diagram formed using the social cognitive map. The concepts, represented by each node in the diagram, are connected by several links. These links establish relationships between the concepts representing the basis of degree centrality. The central concept is people coming out of poverty, which is depicted with yellow color in Fig 2 .

Participants indicated that setting up a quality and dedicated support structures at multiple levels (national, state, district, and block) is essential for poverty alleviation ( Fig 2 : C1). The support structures should be staffed with professionally competent and dedicated human resources. The crucial role of these support structures is to build and nurture strong institutions of the poor ( Fig 2 : C2) at multiple levels and evanesce when community heroes start driving the programme. Building and sustaining strong, inclusive, self-managed, and self-reliant institutions of the poor at various levels such as self-help groups (SHGs), village organisations (VOs), and cluster-level federations (CLFs) through training, handholding, and systematic guidance are crucial to the success of a poverty alleviation programme. However, superior CBOs are required to ensure the quality of primary-level institutions and their sustainability. Adherence to the five principles (regular meetings, regular savings, regular inter-loaning, timely repayment of the loans, and up-to-date books of accounts), co-ordination, and cohesiveness between the members would go a long way in building strong institutions of the poor.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.g002

Participants emphasised the importance of community heroes in driving the poverty alleviation programme ( Fig 2 : C3). The poverty eradication programme is likely to meet with greater success if it is entirely operated and managed by the community. Involving experienced community members for social mobilisation, capacity building and scaling-up of various processes within the project will ensure effective functioning and implementation of the programme. Participants believed that the capacity building of the CBOs, community resource persons, community cadres, and community service providers ( Fig 2 : C4) are essential for poverty alleviation. Apart from training in social and financial inclusion, these community members should be provided with knowledge, skills, and tools to improve their existing livelihoods and for managing innovative livelihood collectives and micro-enterprises. Providing access to financial services to society’s most vulnerable group in a cost-effective manner through mainstream financial institutions and allowing the poor to become preferred clients of the banking system is fundamental to the financial inclusion strategy of a poverty alleviation programme ( Fig 2 : C5). The SHG-bank linkage enables an easy access to micro-finance for the SHGs. It also serves to foster their faith towards the banking system.

Good governance systems and processes are crucial to building sensitive support structures and strong institutions of the poor ( Fig 2 : C6). A well-structured process for participatory identification of the poor by the community helps identify very poor, poor, vulnerable, tribal, differently-abled, and other marginalised communities in a village. A robust process for grading the quality of SHGs and their federations could help maintain a high standard for these institutions. Strong, robust, and transparent monitoring mechanisms ( Fig 2 : C7) could ensure good governance systems and processes. The process-oriented approach of the programme needs to undergo continuous review, assessment, and course-correction from the qualitative and quantitative progress achieved at various levels. Hence, participants suggested that a robust ICT-based monitoring and evaluation system remain in place for facilitating informed decision-making at all levels. The participants also indicated the urgency of robust implementation of institutional accountability and a self-monitoring process in institutions of the poor at all levels, including peer internal review mechanisms, external social auditing, public expenditure tracking, and community scorecards, in order to build stronger institutions of the poor ( Fig 2 : C8). Transparency in the functioning of human resources at all levels aided by regular meetings, reviews, and monitoring of progress could ensure effective implementation of the programme. Maintaining equity and transparency in releasing finances and ensuring effective fund utilisation across all eligible groups could also help focus on the most vulnerable groups.

The participants believed that a poverty alleviation programme should have a strong convergence with other welfare programmes ( Fig 2 : C9). Stronger emphasis should be placed on convergence for developing synergies directly and through the institutions of the poor. Participants suggested that the programme recognise the importance of engaging with industries to set up platforms for public-private-partnerships in farm and non-farm sectors while developing various sector-specific value chains to harness the comparative advantage of the micro-enterprise sector. The political will to support and encourage CBOs, enabling policies for smooth and efficient working of the institutions of the poor, diminished political influence in the decision-making of CBOs, and timely and adequate resource allocation on the part of government institutions is critical for poverty alleviation programmes ( Fig 2 : C10).

Participants acknowledged that livelihood augmentation requires customised need-based financing for the poor and vulnerable ( Fig 2 : C11). Access to micro-finance at affordable rates of interest coupled with desired amounts and convenient repayment terms are needed for the poverty reduction of communities. Providing interest subvention for all SHG loans availed from mainstream financial institutions, based on prompt loan repayment, helps develop a healthy loan repayment culture ( Fig 2 : C12).

Participants opined that diversification of livelihoods would ensure steady incomes for households ( Fig 2 : C13). The development of micro-enterprise in farm and non-farm sectors could encourage institutions of the poor in the aggregation of produce, value-addition, and marketing of finished goods. Therefore, it is imperative that more and more sustainable enterprises be created by the poor to improve their livelihood security. The demand-driven entrepreneurship ( Fig 2 : C14) programmes could be taken up through public-private-partnerships. Provisions could be made for incubation funds and start-up funds for the development of multi-sectoral livelihood collectives ( Fig 2 : C15) to foster a collective entrepreneurship spirit. Livelihood activities, in order to be commercially viable, would require economy of scale, enabling the adoption of available technologies while providing better bargaining power, offering a more significant political clout, and influencing public policy over time. Building specialised multi-sectoral collective institutions of the poor, such as producers’ companies and co-operatives could make the latter key players in the market. These livelihood institutions could carry out participatory livelihood mapping and integrated livelihood planning as well as build robust livelihood clusters, supply chains, and value chains. They could also identify gaps in the supply and value chains, create backward and forward linkages, and tap market opportunities for intervention and collectivisation for chosen livelihood activities ( Fig 2 : C16; C17). Developing adequate and productive infrastructure for processing, storage, packaging, and transportation is crucial for value addition ( Fig 2 : C16). The demand-based value chain development is currently evident in micro-investment planning processes. Identifying non-farm activities to support enterprises in a comprehensive way could also be crucial. Adequate market linkages and support services like branding, market research, market knowledge, market infrastructure, and backward linkages would go a long way in deriving optimum returns from the chosen livelihood activities ( Fig 2 : C17).

Several eco-friendly, climate-smart, and innovative approaches in agriculture production systems will ensure the sustainability of production systems even in the context of climate change ( Fig 2 : C18). Contemporary grassroots innovations supplemented by robust scientific analysis, mainly supported by various government programmes, are likely to ensure enhanced and efficient production systems. Focus on developing adequate infrastructure for processing, storing, and transporting for value addition would serve to reduce post-harvest losses.

Participants believed that affordable and approachable quality education up to the secondary level as well as affordable and quality healthcare facilities are crucial for poverty alleviation ( Fig 2 : C19). Convergence with mid-day-meal schemes will not only encourage communities to send their children to schools but also help curb malnutrition. An affordable and approachable healthcare system is likely to help reduce health-related vulnerabilities of the poor. Crucial is an approach that identifies all needy and poor households while primarily focussing on vulnerable sections like scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, particularly vulnerable tribal groups, single women and women-headed households, disabled, landless, migrant labor, isolated communities, and those living in disturbed areas. Equally crucial is including them in institutions of the poor ( Fig 2 : C20). Customised micro-financing coupled with adequate instruments on healthcare and education could aid vulnerability reduction ( Fig 2 : C23). The social, human, and personal assets created by developing institutions of the poor are crucial for sustaining and scaling-up of the poverty alleviation programme ( Fig 2 : C21). This will also allow women to articulate their problems and improve their self-confidence, enhance their respect in society, develop leadership qualities, inspire them to speak and express their feelings unhesitatingly, and empower them economically and socially. Developing an academic understanding of the factors that support community institutions is crucial for the social infrastructure developed to facilitate the social capital building of the poor and vulnerable communities ( Fig 2 : C22).

3.3. FCM-based simulations

In order to evaluate critical factors responsible for poverty alleviation, we used six input vectors for FCM-based simulations. For each scenario, causal propagation occurs in each iteration until the FCM system converges [ 62 – 65 , 67 , 70 , 91 ]. This happens when no change takes place in the values of a concept after a certain point, also known as the system steady-state; the conceptual vector at that point is called the final state vector [ 62 – 65 , 67 , 70 , 91 ]. Values of the final state vectors depend on the structure of the FCM system and concepts considered for input vectors. The larger the value of the final state vectors, the better the selected policies [ 62 – 65 ]. Comparisons between the final state vectors of the alternative simulations are drawn in order to assess the extent of the desired transition by activating each set of input vectors. The initial values and final state vectors of all the concepts for every scenario are presented in Table 2 . The graphical representation of various scenarios for poverty alleviation is provided in the S5 Fig .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.t002

The first scenario highlights the effects of high-quality community organisations based micro-financing approach. If strong institutions of the poor are built and community heroes start driving the poverty alleviation programme, capacity building of the CBOs gets underway. If mainstream financial institutions start supporting CBOs while customised need-based finance and a repayment culture is developed significant efforts would still be required for putting good governance systems and processes in place along with linkages/ convergences/ partnerships along with other schemes while building capabilities of the poor. In the case of successful micro-financing, there will be opportunities for livelihood diversification, entrepreneurship, multi-sectoral collective enterprise development, value addition by collectives, and market linkages.

The second scenario highlights the effects of the capabilities approach and social security. In this case, affordable and approachable education and healthcare, social inclusion, the building of personal assets, adequate knowledge base, and vulnerability reduction are ensured. In this context, ample efforts will be required for mainstream financial institutions supporting CBOs, good governance systems and processes, and linkages/ convergences/ partnerships with other schemes. Efforts will also be required for a quality support structure and customised need-based finance. The capability and social security enhancement could have prospects for strong institutions of the poor, better implementation processes, livelihood diversification, entrepreneurship, value addition by collectives, multi-sectoral collective enterprise development, and vulnerability reduction.

The third scenario highlights the outcomes of the market-based approach. Here, livelihood diversification, entrepreneurship, multi-sectoral collective enterprise development, value addition by collectives, and market linkages are activated. In such a situation, adequate efforts will be required for mainstream financial institutions supporting CBOs, good governance systems and processes, and linkages/ convergences/ partnerships with other schemes. Efforts will also be required for continuous capacity building of the CBOs, customised need-based finance, affordable and approachable education and healthcare, and vulnerability reduction.

The fourth scenario highlights the outcomes of good governance. Here, good governance systems and processes, robust monitoring mechanisms, implementation processes, enabling policies and political will, and linkages/ convergence/ partnership with other governmental schemes are ensured. In such a situation, plentiful efforts will be required for mainstream financial institutions to lend their support to CBOs and for the building of personal assets. Efforts will also be required for developing a repayment culture, climate-smart production systems, and vulnerability reduction. Good governance is likely to ensure strong institutions of the poor, development of collective enterprises, livelihood diversification, entrepreneurship, value addition by collectives, and market linkages.

In the fifth and sixth scenarios, we activated the most important concepts identified by the participants. The sixth scenario is similar to the fifth one except that the concept C14: entrepreneurship has been replaced by the concept C13: livelihood diversification. The simulation results reveal that quality of CBOs, strong institutions of the poor, community heroes driving the programme, good governance systems and processes, convergence with other schemes/ programmes, enabling policies and political will, and livelihood diversification are very critical for poverty alleviation in a developing nation.

The participants judged a relatively higher weight for the concept C1 (sensitive support structure) ( Fig 1 ). This could be attributed to a conflict of interest on the part of the participants. Even after activating the concept C1 across policy scenarios 4 to 6, the outcome does not change. This also justifies the fact that any community-demand-driven and community-managed poverty alleviation programme has to be self-sustainable in the long-term. Therefore, while a poverty alleviation programme may make use of a support structure in its initial phase, it should persist at thriving even after the support structure has been withdrawn.

4. Contributions to FCM and poverty literature and future research directions

This section deals with contributions of the paper to FCM and poverty literature while offering a practical approach to address multi-dimensional poverty. The paper makes a two-fold contribution to FCM literature: i) knowledge capture and sample adequacy and ii) robustness of the dynamic system model. FCM sampling is often extended if additional maps keep adding new dimensions/ insights. The saturation of FCM sampling is formally measured by tracking the number of new concepts introduced in subsequent exercises and estimating an accumulation curve of concepts. When the point of saturation is reached data collection is stopped. In most studies, the saturation of FCM sampling is reported at 30–32 maps [ 60 , 62 , 63 , 66 , 72 ]. This study does demonstrate, however, that in the event of a ‘mixed-concept design’ approach when the participants gain access to concepts already identified by other sets of participant groups the latter participants continue to add new concepts, making the system much more complex and the data richer. Most FCM-based case studies published in scientific journals have taken weights of the causal interactions between the concepts. This study has not only obtained weights of the causal interactions between the concepts but also obtained weights of each concept. Results of the FCM-based simulations, by and large, match with the most critical concepts identified by participants represented by higher relative weights. This demonstrates in-depth understanding of participants of the subject matter and robustness of the system.

Scenarios are defined as ‘a plausible description of how the future may develop based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions’ [ 97 ]. It also represents uncertainty as a range of plausible futures. Hence, in order to establish proper causal pathways of various poverty eradication approaches, it may be necessary to design random control trial experiments along each of the poverty eradication approaches and carry out the efficacy of each approach delineated above using the difference-in-difference micro-econometric model.

5. Conclusions

The results of our FCM-based simulations reveal that in order to eradicate poverty one needs to provide micro-finance through high-quality community organisations, enhance capabilities of the poor while providing social safety nets to the poor and vulnerable, ensure good governance within community organisations and institutions supporting them, continue to diversify livelihood options, and provide market linkages to small producers. Our findings confirm that various approaches to poverty alleviation are rather complementary and need to be implemented simultaneously for a comprehensive poverty alleviation drive. However, in relative terms, factors like good governance within community organisations and supporting institutions, high-quality community organisations based micro-financing, and enhancement of capabilities coupled with social security assurance seem to work better than a market-based approach. There is rich literature available on radical approaches like land reforms, decentralisation and poverty alleviation that have not been evaluated in this study. Nevertheless, findings of the study lead us to conclude that in order to address multi-dimensional poverty an integrated and multi-dimensional poverty alleviation approach is needed. Findings of the study are likely to help improve the design, management, and implementation of poverty eradication programmes in developing countries.

Supporting information

S1 fig. a simple fcm obtained during the workshop conducted in phase 1..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s001

S2 Fig. The survey instrument used during phase 2 of the data collection.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s002

S3 Fig. A list of all the concept categories and sub-concepts after data collection.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s003

S4 Fig. Sensitivity analysis of the system.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s004

S5 Fig. Various scenarios for poverty alleviation.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s005

S1 Table. Social cognitive map.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227176.s006

Acknowledgments

We thank the World Bank team and functionaries of DAY-NRLM at national, state, and district levels for participating in the study. Indrani Talukdar is acknowledged for language editing. We thank the Academic Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments and constructive suggestions.

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Full Text: Poverty Alleviation: China's Experience and Contribution

The state council information office of the people's republic of china on tuesday released a white paper titled "poverty alleviation: china's experience and contribution.".

IV. Exploring a New Path of Poverty Alleviation

Eliminating poverty is a challenge for all countries. Each subject to different national conditions and at different stages of development, they adopt different poverty reduction criteria, methods and approaches. Bearing in mind its prevailing reality and understanding the nature of poverty and the status of poverty alleviation, China has embarked on a path of poverty alleviation and designed an approach with Chinese characteristics. In this battle, the nation has upheld the CPC leadership and the people-centered philosophy. It has taken advantage of one of the strengths of its socialist system – the ability to pool resources on major endeavors. It has adopted targeted measures and stimulated the enthusiasm, initiative, and creativity of the people in poverty. It has carried forward the great tradition of working together and offering mutual support, and it has adopted a down-to-earth and pragmatic style of work. In this approach, China has accumulated valuable experience, which belongs both to China itself and to the rest of the world, and offers enlightenment to the international community in its battle to reduce poverty.

1. People-centered Philosophy

The CPC is an ambitious party with a grand but simple goal: to ensure a happy life for the Chinese people. In the face of all the changes in the international landscape and the domestic situation over the past century, the Party has always followed a people-centered philosophy. It has borne in mind its founding mission to seek happiness for the Chinese people and national rejuvenation, and united and led the people in fighting poverty armed with firm convictions and a strong will. In the new era, the CPC has adopted a series of bold policies and measures to advance the cause, trying to ensure higher incomes and better education, healthcare, and living conditions for the poor. Taking public satisfaction as an important yardstick to judge the effectiveness of poverty elimination, the Party has concentrated its efforts on guaranteeing the basic needs of the poor. It would rather cut down on the number of major projects in favor of investment in poverty elimination; it would rather penalize short-term, partial or local interests to ensure the cause is well served and guaranteed; and it would rather slow the pace of economic growth to ensure the task of poverty alleviation is accomplished on schedule.

In the fight against poverty, officials including first Party secretaries and resident working teams, grassroots officials and Party members, and volunteers have worked with diligence and a spirit of dedication in support of the poor, fulfilling their mission and their pledge to the people. Some of them have been fighting on the front line for a long time, without time or energy to take care of their own families; some have been traveling around or braving harsh natural conditions; some have fallen sick from overwork all the year round; some have continued work even after getting injured at work. More than 1,800 Party members and officials have lost their lives in the cause of poverty alleviation.

China's poverty elimination effort in the new era is a full and vivid expression of its people-centered philosophy and the CPC's mission of serving the people wholeheartedly. Success in poverty alleviation has proven that the problem of poverty, in essence, is how the people should be treated: the people-centered philosophy is the fundamental driving force behind this cause. Only with this philosophy, can a country identify those who are poor, adopt concrete measures, and deliver genuine outcomes; only with this philosophy, can it draw on inexhaustible motivation, set a clear direction, and find the right approach.

2. Highlighting Poverty Alleviation in the Governance of China

Poor conditions for development in impoverished areas and a lack of capacity for self-improvement among the poor population determine that poverty cannot be eliminated by relying solely on the efforts of individuals, local governments, or non-governmental forces. Poverty elimination must be taken on as a responsibility of the ruling party and the country; it requires will and action at national level, and it must be elevated to a national strategy.

The CPC has always regarded poverty alleviation as an important task for ensuring national peace and stability. It has highlighted poverty alleviation at national level when setting its guidelines, principles and policies, and when formulating national plans for medium- and long-term development. The Party has pooled national resources to advance this cause and motivated generations of its members to devote themselves to this cause.

Since the 18th National Congress in 2012, the CPC has prioritized poverty elimination in its governance, and planned and advanced this cause under its centralized and unified leadership. All Party members, from top leaders to the grassroots officials, are concerned about the poor and the cause of poverty alleviation, and work together towards the same goal.

China has strengthened top-level design and strategic planning. It has issued policy documents such as Decision on Winning the Battle Against Extreme Poverty and Guidelines on the Three-Year Action Plan to Win the Battle Against Extreme Poverty, setting specific aims, defining approaches and detailed measures, and carrying them out with consistent efforts. Investment has been increased by governments at all levels (Figure 4) and a multiple investment system has been established (Box 12), guaranteeing financial support for poverty alleviation. Leveraging the strength of its socialist system – the ability to pool resources on major endeavors – China has mobilized forces from all quarters to participate in poverty alleviation. Systems have been established, covering responsibilities, policies, organization, inputs, mobilization, supervision, assessment and evaluation, and many other aspects of poverty elimination, providing an institutional guarantee for the nation to advance the battle against poverty.

The success in poverty alleviation has proven that governance of a country starts with the needs of the people, and that their prosperity is the responsibility of the government. Poverty alleviation is a pioneering and arduous trek. To achieve success, it is of utmost importance that the leadership have devotion, strong will and determination, and the ruling party and government assume their responsibilities to the people, play a leading role, mobilize forces from all quarters, and ensure policies are consistent and stable.

3. Eradicating Poverty Through Development

The root cause of poverty is inadequate development. As the world's largest developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, China is aware that development is essential to solving many of its problems, including poverty. The CPC has always regarded this as the top priority in governing and rejuvenating the country. It has concentrated its efforts in particular on the economy, to address the problem of unbalanced and inadequate development. Through development, the economy has been growing rapidly and the country has enjoyed a long period of social stability. China has regarded reform as an important driving force for poverty eradication and worked constantly to remove institutional and structural causes of poverty:

• By launching land reform and establishing the socialist system after the founding of the PRC in 1949;

• By implementing the household contract responsibility system with remuneration linked to output after the launch of reform and opening up in 1978;

• By establishing the socialist market economy and rescinding all agricultural taxes;

• By separating the ownership rights, contracting rights, and management rights for contracted rural land and further reforming the rural collective property rights system since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012.

These measures have contributed to rural development and increased farmers' incomes. In addition, China has opened wider to the world amidst economic globalization and seen sustained and rapid growth in its foreign trade, creating many employment opportunities and more sources of higher incomes for rural labor.

Since the founding of the PRC in 1949, and especially since the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, the country has witnessed rapid economic and social development, with the economy and national strength growing steadily. This has provided solid support for large-scale development-driven poverty alleviation effort.

China's experience with poverty alleviation has proven that development is the most effective way to eradicate poverty and the most reliable path towards a more prosperous life. Only development can lead to economic growth, social progress and higher living standards. Only development can better guarantee people's basic rights and meet their desire for a better life.

4. Pressing Ahead with Poverty Alleviation Based on Reality

Poverty problems, as well as their causes, are diverse and complex. China's poverty alleviation efforts are based on a realistic appraisal of the situation. China has set its poverty line and its poverty alleviation goals and strategies, and worked to create better ideas and methods based on its national conditions and stage of development, and on the changes in the demographics, distribution, and structure of the poor population. It has advanced this undertaking step by step and with a steady effort.

Immediately after its founding in 1949, the PRC addressed the problem of poverty mainly through reform of the social system and large-scale economic development. After the launch of reform and opening up in 1978, China drove poverty alleviation mainly through rural economic reform and economic growth. It adopted development-oriented measures, guiding people in impoverished areas to increase their capacity for accumulation of wealth and endogenous development by adjusting the local economic structure, tapping into local resources, and developing production in response to market demand. In the new era, China has continued previous measures, and at the same time carried out a strategy of targeted poverty alleviation. The approach has changed from generalized broad-brush policies to targeted measures based on specific conditions. Before, resources for poverty alleviation came from multiple sources and were used by scattering them among the impoverished areas; now they are concentrated and better coordinated. The model of poverty alleviation has changed from mainly relying on external support like a blood transfusion to a more sustained effort from self-motivation. The assessment system has shifted focus from regional GDP as the main indicator to the genuine result of poverty alleviation. China has gradually lifted its poverty line based on its economic and social advances and progress in the cause of poverty alleviation to share the fruits of development with more people.

The occurrence and evolution of poverty has its own features and trends. To achieve success in reducing poverty, a country must follow a path in line with its national conditions, identify and remove obstacles to poverty alleviation, find driving forces for this cause, and constantly adjust and reform its strategies and policies as circumstances and local conditions change.

5. Letting the Poor Play the Principal Role

Poor people are the main players in eliminating poverty. Poverty alleviation requires both external and internal forces to form a synergy. China fully respects the principal role of the poor and encourages them to play their part, inspires them with the motivation to fight poverty, and enhances their ability to participate in development, share the fruits of development, and achieve endogenous development. They benefit from success in the undertaking of poverty alleviation and at the same time contribute to development in China.

China has inspired its people in poverty to strive for prosperity and provided them necessary education, so that they have the ambition to emerge from poverty and the tools to succeed. People in poverty have had better access to education opportunities, such as farmers' night schools and training workshops, to improve their skills and abilities in work and business.

A significant improvement in the battle against poverty is an effective mechanism of positive incentives encouraging the poor to learn from and keep pace with each other. Through this mechanism, productive activities are rewarded and subsidized and jobs instead of grants are provided, to encourage poor people to rely on their own efforts rather than wait for external assistance.

China has promoted stories of role models who escaped poverty through their hard work. It has also carried out various activities to establish the idea that "It is better to work hard than to endure poverty." The people in poverty have followed suit and eventually shaken off poverty and backwardness.

The fight against poverty shows that the people are the creators and drivers of history, and the true heroes. As long as a country serves the people, relies on them, respects their principal status and pioneering spirit, and motivates the poor to rely on their own hard work, it is sure to defeat poverty.

6. Pooling All Resources to Create Synergy

Poverty alleviation is an arduous, complex, and systematic endeavor, requiring the active participation of all parties. In the fight against poverty, the CPC has mobilized and pooled all possible forces on the basis of its rigorous organizational system and efficient work mechanism. A large-scale poverty alleviation network has been established, with the government, society and the market working in coordination, and government-sponsored projects, sector-specific programs, and corporate and societal assistance supplementing each other. It is a framework with the full participation of multiple players from different regions, sectors, departments and businesses.

China has strengthened collaboration and paired assistance between the eastern and western regions (Box 13) at provincial, city and county levels to encourage the flow of talent, capital, and technology to poor areas so that they can complement each other and narrow the gaps between them.

Poverty alleviation assistance has been directed to designated targets. Party and government institutions, people's organizations, state-owned enterprises and public institutions, and the military have assisted poor counties or villages (Box 14).

Other political parties, federations of industry and commerce and prominent individuals without party affiliation have leveraged their strengths to contribute intellectual and material support.

Various industries have been encouraged to offer assistance with their professional advantages by launching sector-specific programs, providing technological support, improving education, cultural undertakings and healthcare, and boosting consumption.

Private enterprises have been urged to participate in development-driven poverty alleviation. Businesses skilled in resource extraction have been encouraged to enter regions with great resource potential, which benefit both the businesses and those regions (Box 15).

Social organizations and individual citizens have been mobilized to participate in poverty alleviation and related public benefit activities. China has designated a National Poverty Alleviation Day and established a national system to commend models in fighting poverty. All these measures have created an atmosphere where everyone who is interested can join in poverty alleviation.

China's experience has proven that only when a country mobilizes all sectors of society to unite with common purpose and act in unison, can poverty be finally defeated.

Under the CPC leadership, the Chinese people have created an approach to poverty alleviation with their own hard work. China's successful practice and valuable experience in eliminating extreme poverty have deepened human understanding of poverty alleviation trends, enriched and extended the theory of international poverty alleviation, and boosted the confidence of other countries, especially developing ones, in eradicating extreme poverty. They serve as reference for other countries to choose a suitable path of poverty alleviation, and offer China's approach to solving the problem of modern national governance and creating brighter prospects for social progress.

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Poverty Essay for Students and Children

500+ words essay on poverty essay.

“Poverty is the worst form of violence”. – Mahatma Gandhi.

How Poverty is Measured?

For measuring poverty United nations have devised two measures of poverty – Absolute & relative poverty.  Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developing countries like India. Relative poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries like the USA. In absolute poverty, a line based on the minimum level of income has been created & is called a poverty line.  If per day income of a family is below this level, then it is poor or below the poverty line. If per day income of a family is above this level, then it is non-poor or above the poverty line. In India, the new poverty line is  Rs 32 in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban areas.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Causes of Poverty

According to the Noble prize winner South African leader, Nelson Mandela – “Poverty is not natural, it is manmade”. The above statement is true as the causes of poverty are generally man-made. There are various causes of poverty but the most important is population. Rising population is putting the burden on the resources & budget of countries. Governments are finding difficult to provide food, shelter & employment to the rising population.

The other causes are- lack of education, war, natural disaster, lack of employment, lack of infrastructure, political instability, etc. For instance- lack of employment opportunities makes a person jobless & he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basic necessities of his family & becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs & it makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks, etc. in a country resulting in lack of employment opportunities. Natural disasters like flood, earthquake also contribute to poverty.

In some countries, especially African countries like Somalia, a long period of civil war has made poverty widespread. This is because all the resources & money is being spent in war instead of public welfare. Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. are prone to natural disasters like cyclone, etc. These disasters occur every year causing poverty to rise.

Ill Effects of Poverty

Poverty affects the life of a poor family. A poor person is not able to take proper food & nutrition &his capacity to work reduces. Reduced capacity to work further reduces his income, making him poorer. Children from poor family never get proper schooling & proper nutrition. They have to work to support their family & this destroys their childhood. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc. A poor person remains uneducated & is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There are no proper sanitation & drinking water facility in slums & he falls ill often &  his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. So, all social evils are related to poverty.

Government Schemes to Remove Poverty

The government of India also took several measures to eradicate poverty from India. Some of them are – creating employment opportunities , controlling population, etc. In India, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in India. The government constructed certain dams & canals in our country to provide easy availability of water for irrigation. Government has also taken steps for the cheap availability of seeds & farming equipment to promote agriculture. Government is also promoting farming of cash crops like cotton, instead of food crops. In cities, the government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs. Government has also opened  ‘Ration shops’. Other measures include providing free & compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age, scholarship to deserving students from a poor background, providing subsidized houses to poor people, etc.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example- we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.

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A newly-built community for poverty alleviation relocation in Zhaojue County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, May 13, 2020. /Xinhua

Editor's note:  Djoomart Otorbaev is the former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, a distinguished professor of the Belt and Road School of Beijing Normal University, and a member of Nizami Ganjavi International Center. The article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN.

For millennia, countless generations of Chinese people have dreamed of living without poverty. In the text of the great Confucius Shijing ("Book of Poems"), he presented old folk songs. Many of the songs are imbued with the hope for happiness, for a life without hunger and want. It was Confucius, the "teacher of ten thousand generations," who gave birth to the idea of ​​"xiaokang," which he interpreted as "small well-being." Deng Xiaoping proposed to reformulate "xiaokang" into the term "moderately prosperous."

In the last century, China remained the world's largest concentration of poor people in the hundreds of millions for decades. Even in 1978, the majority of the country's population lived in poverty. By 2012, there were still 99 million left. The final stage of the war on poverty began in 2013 when President Xi Jinping proposed the "Chinese Dream" and set out a specific goal of ending absolute poverty by 2021.

The "black swan" of the coronavirus pandemic should have prevented these plans' implementation. The ensuing illness of tens of thousands of people stopped the economic life of huge cities, even entire provinces of the country. Then came the global economic recession. But even such colossal challenges have failed to stop the Chinese people's strong desire to achieve their goal of poverty eradication.

It is now essential to analyze and understand how this success was achieved. What was the real "secret" of this historic victory?

Here I would like to refer to an incident that happened to me on November 10, 2018, when I attended the first China International Import Expo (CIIE). On one of its main stands, a vast digital clock displayed a countdown until the complete eradication of poverty in the country. This picture was a living illustration of the Chinese people working hard to achieve the objective.

During my trips to Gansu and Inner Mongolia, organized by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) in July 2019, I was again convinced of the people's aspiration to achieve the millennial goal.

On our way from Lanzhou to Hezuo in Gansu Province, we drove 230 kilometers on a first-class highway through a picturesque Tibetan landscape. We went through dozens of beautifully designed long tunnels. I was puzzled. Tens of billions of dollars were invested in improving the lives of fewer than a million people.

The solar power farm at the Kubuqi Desert in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, August 1, 2018. /Xinhua

At a meeting with the provincial authorities, I told them that these vast investments could not be justified from a business perspective. They agreed but emphasized that business pragmatism was not the main reason for the investments; the real goal was to reduce poverty, create jobs, achieve social justice and harmonious development in this remote area.

During the same trip, I attended the Kubuqi International Desert Forum in Ordos in Inner Mongolia. It is challenging to live and maintain a decent life and successful business in this arid area. The poverty level there has always been above the national average.

The Kubuqi Desert project has succeeded not only in containing the growth of one of the largest deserts in China but also turned a third of the desert into green landscapes, which is about 6,000 square kilometers!

I was even more surprised to learn that this colossal project was initiated and implemented not by the state with public funds but by a commercial company at its own cost. Since 1988, the privately-owned Elion company has invested billions in a greening project in the Kubuqi Desert, which has helped lift more than 100,000 local farmers and herders out of poverty.

These are just two examples. They demonstrated that all available resources were thrown into the country's fight against poverty. It became evident that the real "secret" of victory was the entire nation's aspiration to achieve the Chinese people's long-held dream.

The fact that absolute poverty in the country has been eliminated does not mean that the mission is accomplished. China will still need to continue its work on combating poverty.

There are many fundamental issues to be resolved. A lot of obsolete industries require restructuring. Many workers are part-time and precariously employed. Some enterprises are highly dependent on government support. According to various estimates, nearly two million people who have recently been lifted out of poverty are still at risk of returning to poverty; almost three million are only slightly above the poverty line.

China's impressive achievements in the fight against poverty are of immense importance to countries worldwide. Naturally, my region of Central Asia would like to learn from its neighbor as well. The Central Asian states' leaders have repeatedly expressed their wish to apply China's experience to fight poverty.

For example, in September 2020, speaking at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev proposed to define the theme of combating poverty as one of the main topics on the agenda of the assembly. At the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) two months later, he again raised this topic. To coordinate interaction in this area, he put forward an initiative to develop a particular program of cooperation between the SCO member states. In his opinion, the implementation of these measures should draw on China's successful experience.

As China's closest neighbors, the Central Asian countries want to fight poverty as actively as possible.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at [email protected].)

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Krumer-Nevo, M. Poverty-Aware Social Work: A Paradigm for Social Work Practice with People in Poverty. British Journal of Social Work , 2016, 46(6), pp. 1793-1808.

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Wen, J., Wu, Y. (2023). Community-Centered Poverty-Alleviation Social Work: Reflections and the Future. In: Research on Community-Centered Poverty-Alleviation Social Work. Poverty-Alleviation and Social Work in China. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2536-0_7

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Poverty Alleviation - Programmes And Policies (UPSC Notes)

Poverty Alleviation Programmes aims to reduce the rate of poverty in the country by providing proper access to food, monetary help, and basic essentials to households and families belonging to below the poverty line threshold.

According to the World Bank, Poverty is a pronounced deprivation in well-being and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.

As per the Planning Commission of India, the level of poverty in a country can be estimated based on the consumer expenditure surveys that are conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. This article will talk about the various Poverty Alleviation Programmes in India and the initiatives taken by the Government of India towards poverty alleviation.

Candidates preparing for the IAS Exam must have a thorough knowledge of all the poverty alleviation programmes in India. Candidates can also download the notes PDF at the end of this article. 

Table of Contents:

What is Poverty Alleviation?

Poverty Alleviation is the set of steps taken in an economic and humanitarian way to eradicate poverty in a country. According to the World Bank, if a person is living on $1.90 a day or less, then he/she is living in extreme poverty, and currently, 767 million people in the world fall under that category. According to the last released official data, in 2011, 268 million people in India were surviving on less than $1.90 a day. Various Programmes and Schemes under the Government of India were launched to eradicate poverty and to provide basic amenities to poor households. 

Schemes like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Housing for All by 2022 were developed to provide housing to the rural and urban poor. The latest government schemes like Start-Up India and Stand Up India focus on empowering people to earn their livelihood.

Candidates would find this article very helpful while preparing for the  Civil Services Exam .

Below Poverty Line (BPL) can be defined as an economic benchmark used in the identification of economically weaker people and households. BPL is set by the Government of India based on a threshold income. The households or individuals having an income below this threshold value are considered to be under the below poverty line.

Measuring BPL in India

 The poverty line solely depends on the per capita income in India rather than the level of prices. The poverty line is the minimum income required to purchase the basic goods and services that are essential to satisfy the basic human needs. The proportion of the population that is below this poverty line is called the poverty ratio or headcount ratio. Similar approaches are followed by most countries and international institutions for determining BPL. 

In India, the first official rural and urban poverty lines at the national level were introduced in 1979 by Y. K. Alagh Committee. Criteria for the measurement of BPL are different for the rural and urban areas. 

• Currently, according to the Tenth Five-Year Plan, the degree of deprivation is measured with the help of parameters with scores given from 0–4, with 13 parameters. 
• Families with 17 marks or less (formerly 15 marks or less) out of a maximum of 52 marks have been classified as BPL. 
• The poverty line is calculated every 5 years. According to the recent estimation based on inflation,  the threshold income should be more than Rs. 962 a month for urban areas and Rs 768 a month in rural areas i.e., above Rs. 32 a day in an urban area and above Rs. 26 a day in a rural area. 

Poverty Alleviation in India – Five-Year Plans

Eleven Five Year Plans were launched to eradicate poverty in India. The list of these Five Year Plans that started in the year 1951 is given below:

• First Five Year Plan (1951- 1956): The plan focused mainly on agriculture and irrigation and aimed at achieving an all-round balanced development. 
• Second Five Year Plan (1956-1961): It focused on the growth of basic and heavy industries, expansion in employment opportunities, and an increase of 25 per cent in the national income.
• Third Five Year Plan (1961-1966): The  Chinese aggression (1962), Indo-Pak war (1965), and the severest drought led to the complete failure of the third five-year plan. It was replaced by three annual plans that continued from 1966 to 1969. 
• Fourth Five Year Plan (1966-1974): It aimed at increasing national income by 5.5 per cent, creating economic stability, reducing inequalities in income distribution, and achieving social justice with equality.
• Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-1979): This plan mainly focused on the removal of poverty (Garibi Hatao) and aimed in bringing larger sections of the poor masses above the poverty line. It also assured a minimum income of Rs. 40 per person per month calculated at 1972-73 prices. The plan was terminated in 1978 instead of (1979) when the Janata Government came to power.
• Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-1985): Removal of poverty was the main objective of the sixth five-year plan with a major focus on economic growth, elimination of unemployment, self-sufficiency in technology, and raising the lifestyles of the weaker sections of the society.
• Seventh Five Year Plan (1985-90): The Seventh Five Year Plan aimed in improving the living standards of the poor with a significant reduction in the incidence of poverty.  
• Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97): This plan aimed at employment generation but later failed in achieving most of its targets.
• Ninth Five Year Plan (1997-2002): The ninth five-year plan focused on the areas of agriculture, employment, poverty, and infrastructure. 
• Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-2007): The tenth five-year plan aimed at the reduction of the poverty ratio from 26 per cent to 21 per cent by the year 2007 and also to help the children in completing five years of schooling by 2007. 
• Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012): The eleventh five-year plan targets towards reducing poverty by 10 percentage points, generating 7 crore new employment opportunities, and ensuring electricity connection to all villages. 

Poverty Alleviation Programmes in India

As per the 2011-2012 estimation by the Planning Commission of India, 25.7 % of the rural population was under the below-poverty line and for the urban areas, it was 13.7 %. The rate of poverty in the rural areas is comparatively higher than that in the urban areas due to the lack of proper infrastructure, insufficient food supply, and poor employment system. 

The major Poverty Alleviation Programmes that were developed with an initiative to eradicate poverty are mentioned in the table below:

Apart from eradicating poverty in India, the Poverty Alleviation Programmes also took the initiative to provide employment opportunities to the households of the BPL categories. 

Aspirants can go through the detailed information on various schemes mentioned above in the table below-

Role of Public Distribution System in Poverty Alleviation

The Public Distribution System (PDS) which evolved as a system of management for food and distribution of food grains plays a major role in poverty alleviation. This programme is operated jointly by the Central Government and the State Government of India. The responsibilities include:

• Allocations of commodities such as rice, wheat, kerosene, and sugar to the States and Union Territories.
• Issue of Ration Cards for the people below the poverty line.
• Identification of families living below the poverty line.
• Management of food scarcity and distribution of food grains.

PDS was later relaunched as Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) in June 1997 and is controlled by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India. TPDS plays a major role in the implementation and identification of the poor for proper arrangement and delivery of food grains. Therefore, the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) under the Government of India plays the same role as the PDS but adds a special focus on the people below the poverty line.

To know more about PDS and TPDS in India , refer to the linked page. 

Why is employment generation important in poverty alleviation in India?

The unemployment issue in India is considered as one of the major causes of poverty in India. The poverty rate of a country can be reduced with high economic growth and by reducing the unemployment problem. Various poverty alleviation programmes are set up under the Government of India that aim to eradicate poverty by providing employment on-demand and through specific guaranteed wage employment every year to households living below the poverty line. 

The generation of employment is important in poverty alleviation because of the following reasons:

• It will increase the income level of poor household families and will help in reducing the rate of poverty in the country. Hence, there is a significant relationship between unemployment and poverty. 
• It will decrease the rural-urban migration through the generation of employment programs in rural areas.
• An increase in the income level through the generation of employment programs will help the poor in accessing basic facilities including education, health facilities, and sanitation.

What are the reasons for the ineffectiveness of poverty alleviation programs?

The major reasons for the ineffectiveness of the poverty alleviation programs are mentioned below:

•  The poverty alleviation program may not properly identify and target the exact number of poor families in rural areas. As a result, some of the families who are not registered under these programs benefit the facilities rather than the eligible ones
• Overlapping of similar government schemes is a major cause of ineffectiveness as it leads to confusion among poor people and authorities and the benefits of the scheme do not reach the poor.
• Overpopulation in the country increases the burden of providing the benefits of the schemes to a large number of people and thus reduces the effectiveness of the programs.
• Corruption at various levels of implementation of schemes is another major reason.

Candidates preparing for the UPSC 2024  should follow the latest developments in Current Affairs related to other government schemes. Several questions are asked from these sections in both UPSC Prelims and IAS Mains Examination. 

Poverty Alleviation Programmes (UPSC Notes):- Download PDF Here

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