Dr.DEBESH BHOWMIK

Dr.DEBESH BHOWMIK

Sunday 11 September 2011

GIVE ME 200 BILLION DOLLAR,I SHALL BANISH INDIAN POVERTY INTO ARABIAN SEA


I remember that IMF reported a few months back that India had no target based plan for  poverty eradication either by domestic finance or by foreign finance.India spent more than 60 years to fight against poverty but still its poverty head count ratio is more than 25% .On the contrary,China ,taking the same period,it was able  to eradicate poverty ratio just 11% only.How it was possible?Because,they had target rate of reduction of poverty ratio and the income generating techniques for the poor.If we imagine Indian Poverty Reduction Policies, we will see that all policies are short term or very short term of which there are no permanent solution for poverty stricken people who may be up the poverty line.Some of which were taken for infrastructural development from which some poor people benefited (say building roads,canals,social forestry,cash crop loans,IVJ,JRJ, and so many.)Very recently , 100days work - a political poverty eradication policy , which has no productive outcome in terms of GDP increase - is considered the prime policy and is also a temporary and short run policy.Assume PMRJ,PMSJ,IAJ,etc and many small projects for rural development which are disintegrated policies for sustainable development,cannot be treated as permanent cure for poverty reduction.India,since long, stopped in taking IMF - World Bank loan for poverty alleviation due to conditionality .And India is not entitled to take loan from HIPC initiatives.So,India  is permitted to take loans for projects.Above all,India is committed to declare its target in the MDG from where we see India's goal.We are lucky enough.But,if we examine poverty data,we see all targets of poverty reduction became unsuccessful.Even today, all politicians  agree that high inflation hampers poor peoples' purchasing power,but they ignore control on inflation.They say that they had no magic power to control inflation.How, awful and tragic.Until and unless we can assure permanent solution for income generation of the poor,we will fail to solve the genesis of the problem.In the  rural development,focus should be given on cluster work of productive sources of investment by which  poverty ratio can be dwindled.Moreover,the investment leakage in every poverty reduction strategies is visible.Corruption of public funds is everywhere.No body can protest except Anna Hazare.Poor India is depriving the poor.Thus , the distribution of income is becoming uneven.In the era of globalisation,the privatisation drive accelerated this space too.In the long run,we will observe a huge gap between the rich and the poor. The role of the public sector is becoming dim.If we clarify the capital assets of the poor and the rich,the situation is worse off than before.Why? The distribution of capital asset shifted in favour of the rich.Is there any policy to halt this process?Politician needs the poor for their existence but not for policy making.

1 comment:

  1. i am admirer of your posting.
    India tries to compete with China in Africa.

    ReplyDelete